Well, it's knowin' that your door is always open   And your path is free to walk   That makes me tend to leave my sleepin' bag rolled up   Stashed behind your couch      And it's knowin' I'm not shackled by forgotten words and bonds   And the ink stains that have dried upon some lines   That keeps you in the back roads   By the rivers of my memory and keeps you ever gentle on my mind      It's not clingin' to the rocks and ivy   Planted on their columns now that bind me   Or somethin' that somebody said 'cause   They thought we fit together walkin'      It's just knowin' 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 memory and for hours you're just gentle on my mind      Though the wheat fields and the coal mines and the junkyards   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 the 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      I dip my cup of soup   From some gurglin', cracklin' cauldron in some train yard   My beard a roughenin' coal pile   And a dirty hat pulled low across my face      Through cupped hands 'round a tin can   I pretend to hold you to my breast and find   That you're wavin' from the back roads   By the rivers of my memory ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind