Gentle On My Mind

(album: Keepin' The Horse Between Me And The Ground - 2016)

It's knowing that your door is always open
And your path's free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag
Rolled up and stashed behind your couch

It's knowing I'm not shackled by forgotten words or bonds
Some ink stains that have dried upon some lines
That keeps you on the backroads, by the rivers of my memories
Keeps you ever gentle on my mind

It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy
Planted on the columns now that binds me
Or something that somebody said
'Cause I thought we fit together walking

It's knowing that your world will not be cursing or forgiving
When I walk along some railroad track and find
It's you waving from the backroads by the rivers of my memory
Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind

Although the wheat fields and the clotheslines
And the junkyards and the highways come between us
Some other woman crying to her mother
'Cause she turned and I was gone

I still 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 backroads
By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind

I'd dip my cup of soup back from them gurgling
Crackling cauldron in some trainyard
An' my beard roughening coal pile
Dirty hat pulled low cross my face

Through cupped hands and a round tin can
I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
That you're waving from the backroads, by the rivers of my memory
Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind

That you're waving from the backroads, by the rivers of my memory
Ever smiling ever gentle on my mind
That you're waving from the backroads, by the rivers of my memory
For hours you're just gentle on my mind