Tom: Am
Cmaj7
[Verse]
Cmaj7
It's knowing that your door is always open,
Am7 Dm7
And your path is free to walk,
Dm7 Aaug
That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag,
Dm7 G7 Cmaj7
Rolled up and stashed behind your couch.
Cmaj7
And it's knowing I'm not shackled,
Cmaj7
By forgotten words and bonds,
Am7 Dm7
And the ink stains that are dried up on some line,
Dm7
That keeps you in the back roads,
Dm7 G7
By the rivers of my memory,
Dm7 G7 Cmaj7 G
And keeps you ever gentle on my mind.
Cmaj7
It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy,
Cmaj7 Dm7
Planted on their columns now that bind me,
Dm7 Aaug
Or something that somebody said,
Dm7 G7 Cmaj7
Because they thought we fit, together walking.
Cmaj7
It's just knowing that the world,
Cmaj7
Will not be cursing or forgiving,
Dm7 Am7
When I walk along some railroad track and find,
Dm7 Aaug
That you're moving on the back roads,
Dm7 G7
By the rivers of my memory,
Dm7 G7 Cmaj7
And for hours you're just gentle on my mind.
Cmaj7
Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines,
Cmaj7 Am7 Dm7
And the junkyards and the highways come between us,
Dm7 Aaug
And some other woman's crying to her mother,
Dm7 G7 Cmaj7
Cause she turned and you were gone.
Cmaj7
I still might run in silence,
Cmaj7
Tears of joy might stain my face,
Am7 Dm7 Am7
And the summer sun might burn me until I'm blind,
Dm7
But not to where I cannot see.
Dm7 G7
You walking on the back roads.
Dm7 Cmaj7
By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind.
Cmaj7
You dip your cup of soup, back from a gurgling,
Am7 Dm7
Crackling cauldron, in some train yard,
Dm7 Aaug
Your beard a roughening coal pile,
Dm7 G7 Cmaj7
And a dirty hat pulled low across your face.
Cmaj7
Through cupped hands 'round the tin can,
Am7 Dm7
I pretend to hold you to my breast and find,
Dm7
That you're waiting from the back roads,
Dm7 G7
By the rivers of my memories,
Dm7 G7 Cmaj7
Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind.
