[Verse]
C
It's knowing that your door is always open
Dm
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag
G7 C
Rolled up and stashed behind your couch
And it's knowing I'm not shackled by forgotten words and bonds
Dm
And the ink stains that have dried if on some line
That keeps you in the back-roads
G7 C
By the rivers of my memory that keeps you ever gentle on my mind
It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy
Dm
Planted on the columns now that binds me
Or something that somebody said
G7 C
Because they thought we fit together walking
It's just knowing that the world will not be cursing
Dm
Or forgiving when I walk along some railroad track and find
That you are moving on the back-roads by the rivers of my memory
G7 C
And for hours you're just gentle on my mind
Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines
Dm
And the junkyards and the highways come between us
And some other woman crying to her mother
G7 C
Cause she turned and I was gone
I still might run in silence tears of joy might stain my face
Dm
And the summer sun might burn me till I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see you walking on the back-roads
G7 C
By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind
I dip my cup of soup back from the gurgling
Dm
Crackling caldron in some train yard
My beard a roughning coal pile and
G7 C
A dirty hat pulled low across my face
Through cupped hands 'round a tin can
Dm
I pretend I hold you to my breast and find
That you're waving from the back-roads
G7 C
By the rivers of my memory ever smiling ever gentle on my mind