I can close my eyes and it takes me back To two young lovers on that riverbank To the sounds of the wind and the whip-poor-will And the way that your bare skin would feel As we laid in the sun I could see your eyes Blue as the blue in that Southern sky Kisses warm as a wild red rose At the bend in the river where the cottonwood grows And we'd dance And we'd sing And we'd love each other as the pale moon glows At the bend in the river where the cottonwood grows At the bend in the river where the cottonwood grows I can still recall the words you said And the plans we dreamed as we looked ahead
But the fork in the river took us separate ways As the years went by, I can't forget those days And I often wonder but I'll never know If we ended up following a different road Would we still be laying by the wild red rose? At the bend in the river where the cottonwood grows And we'd dance And we'd sing And we'd love each other as the pale moon glows At the bend in the river where the cottonwood grows At the bend in the river where the cottonwood grows I can close my eyes and it takes me back To two young lovers on that riverbank