It's knowing you don’t try to bind my freedom
With some promise made of gold
That for you my door stays open
And our love becomes a simple to A-street

And it's knowing we're not shacked
By forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that have dried upon some line
That keeps you on the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
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 bind us
Or something that somebody said
Because they thought we fit together walking

It's just knowin' that the world will not be cursing or forgiving
When I'm driftin' through the market place and find
That you're moving 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 clotheslines
And the junkyards and the highways come between us
And some other woman cryin’ to her mother
’Cause she turned and you were gone
I still might walk for hours
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 movin’ 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 layin' down my hair brush
I lean back within my window seat and find
That you're movin’ on the back roads by the rivers of my memory
Ever smiling ever gentle on my mind