[00:08.47]i learned the truth at seventeen
[00:12.98]
[00:13.44]that love was meant for beauty queens
[00:16.98]
[00:17.58]and high school girls with clear siknned smiles
[00:22.05]who married young and then retired
[00:26.60]
[00:28.75]the valentines i never knew
[00:33.26]the friday night charades of youth
[00:37.36]were spent on one more beautiful
[00:42.29]at seventeen i learned the truth
[00:46.13]
[00:49.20]and those of us with ravaged faces
[00:53.37]
[00:53.76]lacking in the social graces
[00:57.43]desperately remained at home
[01:02.30]inventing lovers on the phone
[01:05.52]who called to say come dance with me"
[01:10.25]and murmured vague obscenities
[01:13.14]
[01:15.10]it isn't all it seems at seventeen
[01:19.39]
[01:22.28]a brown-eyed girl in hand me downs
[01:25.98]
[01:26.51]whose name i never could pronounce
[01:31.20]said"pity please the ones who serve,
[01:34.67]they only get what they deserve"
[01:38.07]
[01:42.03]and the rich relationed home town queen
[01:45.98]
[01:46.96]marries into what she needs
[01:51.11]with a guarantee of company and haven for the elderly
[01:58.67]
[02:02.63]remember those who with the game
[02:06.99]lose the love they sought to gain
[02:10.44]in debentures of quality and dubious  integrity
[02:19.09]the small town eyes would gape at you in dull surprise
[02:28.50]
[02:28.96]when payment due exceeds accounts received at seventeen
[02:37.10]
[02:56.14]to those of us who knew the pain
[03:00.91]of valentines that never came
[03:05.25]and those whose names were never called
[03:09.31]when choosing sides for basketball
[03:13.22]
[03:16.12]it was long ago and far away
[03:20.45]
[03:21.20]the world was younger than today
[03:24.29]
[03:25.90]and dreams were all they gave for free
[03:29.11]
[03:30.47]to ugly duckling girls like me
[03:33.97]
[03:36.57]we all played the game and when we dared
[03:40.68]
[03:41.05]to cheat ourselves at solitaire
[03:45.08]inverting lovers on the phone
[03:49.83]repenting other lives unknown
[03:53.26]they call and say "come dance with me"
[03:57.43]
[03:58.69]and murmur vague obscenities
[04:02.25]
[04:03.31]at ugly girls like me--at seventeen
[04:10.82]