When I was just a girl, they'd laugh at my dreams
Said love wasn't real, just make-believe scenes
But there you were, with your crooked smile
I knew in my heart it was more than a while

Mama would frown, and Daddy would sigh
You're too young to love, it's a childish lie
But I held your hand like a secret untold
Two kids with a love too wild to hold

When you're a child, you can promise forever
Swear to the stars that you'll never say never
But at seventeen, you look in my eyes
Maybe remembering what we left behind
And still, I can't help but fall every time
To me, you'll always be my John

We'd run through the fields, chasing the Sun
Pretending the world was ours to outrun
You called me your queen in my secondhand dress
I laughed at your words, but my heart said yes

Your mother would smile, though she tried not to stare
And your father said: Boy, be wise and beware
But love doesn't listen, it knows no age
It's written in whispers, a timeless page

When you're a child, you can promise forever
Swear to the stars that you'll never say never
But at seventeen, you look in my eyes
Maybe remembering what we left behind
And still, I can't help but fall every time
To me, you'll always be my John

The years have passed, and the world feels strange
But something in you, John, will never change
I see that boy in the man you've become
And I'll love him until my days are done

When you're a child, you can promise forever
Swear to the stars that you'll never say never
But at seventeen, you look in my eyes
Maybe remembering what we left behind
And still, I can't help but fall every time
To me, you'll always be my John

Through laughter and tears, through all we've been through
I'll carry the love I first found in you
The girl in the thrift dress, the boy on the lawn
Forever and always, you'll be my John