梨花侵梦 Gentle on My Mind

Gentle on My Mind


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 and stashed behind your couch
And it's knowin' I'm not shackled
By forgotten words and bonds
Or the ink stains that have dried upon

some line
That keeps you in the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
That 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 something that somebody said because
They thought we fit together walkin'
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 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 clothes

lines
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 back from a

gurglin' cracklin' cauldron
In some train yard
My beard a rufflin' coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled low across my

face
Through cupped hands 'round a tin cans
I pretend to hold you to my breast and

find
That you're waitin' from the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind