It's knowing you don't try to bind my freedom with some promise made of gold

That for you my door stays open and our love becomes a simple to A street

And it's knowing we're not shacked by forgotten words and bons

And the ink stains that have dried upon some line

That keeps you on the back roads by the rivers of my mem'ry

That keeps you ever gentle on my mind

It's not clinging to the rocks and I'd be planted on some column now that binds us

Or something that somebody said because they thought we fit together walking

It's just knowing that the world will not be cursing or forgiving

When I'm driftin' through the market place and find

That you're moving on the back roads by the rivers of my mem'ry

And for hours you're just gentle on my mind

[ steel ]

Though the wheet fields and the clothes lines

And the junk yards and the highways come between us

And some other woman crying to her mother cause she turned and you were gone

I still might walk for hours tears of joy might stain my face

And a summer sun might burn me till I'm blind

But not to where I cannot see you moving on the back roads

By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind

[ ac.guitar ]

The shadows freek in the autumn winds that make me draw inside myself in silence

Cross legged night I sit and watch the endless chase of leaves across my yard

And layin' down my hair brush I lean back within my window seat and find

That you're moving on the back roads by the rivers of my mem'ry

Ever smiling ever gentle on my mind