John & Josie - David Roth

John and Josie’s only child, young and handsome, fast and wild

Joined the army at eighteen, left the army at eighteen

Drifted then from job to job, town to town and love to love

Seven years forever til young Johnny came marching home

But Johnny wasn’t looking well, went into the hospital

Days turned into several weeks, Johnny kept on losing weight

Josie said to John «Sit down», John cried «Oh God, not my son»

Johnny left at twenty five, a hole as big as Jupiter

Nothing stronger than the love John and Josie had for Johnny

Threw him his last birthday party, no one from the family came

No one from the family came, turned John and Josie’s grief to shame

Shame to anger, anger pain, nothing they needed more of

Two years gone, the telephone is ringing in the dim-lit den

Beneath the wooden crucifix that John had punched the day he learned

That Johnny wouldn’t live much longer, now a voice said to his father

«John, we have a baby here and no one seems to want him

The baby doesn’t have his parents, two months old and with their virus."

Josie grabbed the phone from John, the two of them said «Yes, yes, yes»

So John and Josie, over sixty, taking in a brand new baby

Named him Paul Antonio, Johnny would have loved him

Nothing stronger than the love that John & Josie had for Johnny

The same love that they have for Paul, they’re starting up the wheel again

And of the fear the same could happen, losing Paul before his time comes

John and Josie look right past it, they’re basking in love’s mighty presence

John and Josie don’t have time

They’re basking in love’s mighty presence