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