[00:07.37]i learned the truth at seventeen
[00:12.81] that love was meant for beauty queens
[00:16.50] and high school girls with clear siknned smiles
[00:21.73] who married young and then retired
[00:27.03] the valentines i never knew
[00:33.57] the friday night charades of youth
[00:37.86] were spent on one more beautiful
[00:42.74] at seventeen i learned the truth
[00:49.02] and those of us with ravaged faces
[00:54.95] lacking in the social graces
[00:58.83] desperately remained at home
[01:02.56] inventing lovers on the phone
[01:06.80] who called to say come dance with me
[01:11.56] and murmured vague obscenities
[01:16.01] it isn't all it seems at seventeen
[01:22.78] a brown-eyed girl in hand me downs
[01:28.01] whose name i never could pronounce
[01:32.89] said pity please the ones who serve,
[01:37.18] they only get what they deserve
[01:42.32] and the rich relationed home town queen
[01:49.19] marries into what she needs
[01:53.07] with a guarantee of company and haven for the elderly
[02:04.49] remember those who with the game
[02:10.01] lose the love they sought to gain
[02:14.04] in debentures of quality and dubious integrity
[02:22.52] the small town eyes would gape at you in dull surprise
[02:30.10] when payment due exceeds accounts received at seventeen
[02:53.81] to those of us who knew the pain
[03:00.23] of valentines that never came
[03:04.62] and those whose names were never called
[03:08.91] when choosing sides for basketball
[03:13.49] it was long ago and far away
[03:21.10] the world was younger than today
[03:25.69] and dreams were all they gave for free
[03:30.28] to ugly duckling girls like me
[03:36.92] we all played the game and when we dared
[03:42.21] to cheat ourselves at solitaire
[03:46.34] inverting lovers on the phone
[03:50.32] repenting other lives unknown
[03:54.62] they call and say come dance with me
[03:59.35] and murmur vague obscenities
[04:03.78] at ugly girls like me--at seventeen