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