Gentle On My Mind

(album: No End Of Love - 1996)

Oh, Benny Mart, now

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 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

Oh, Sam, Sammy Bush

It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy
Planted on their columns now that binds me
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 walk along some railroad track and find
That you're waving from the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
For hours you're just gentle on my mind

Although the wheat fields and the curled twines
And the junkyards and the highways come between us
And some other woman crying 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 walking on the back roads
By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind

Take Robin and Buddy Ellins

I dip my cup of soup back from the gurgling
Crackling cauldron in some train yard
My beard a roughening 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 waving from the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind