It's knowing that your door is always open and your path is free to walk

That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag rolled up

And stashed behind your couch

And it's knowing I'm 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 their columns now that binds me

Or somethin' that somebody said because they thought we fit together walking

It's just knowing that the world will not be cursin' or forgivin'

When I walk along some railroad track and find

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

And for hours you're just gentle on my mind



Though the wheet fields and the clothes lines

And the junk yards and the highways come between us

And some other woman's cryin' to her mother cause she turned and I was gone

I still might run in silence 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 walkin' on the back roads

By the rivers flowin' gentle on my mind



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

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

And laying 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

Evrer smiling ever gentle on my mind



That you're waving from the back roads by the rivers of my mem'ry

Ever smiling ever gentle on my mind