At Seventeen lyrics

Artist  : Ian Janis 
Song : At Seventeen



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 Janis Ian
"At Seventeen"
I leaned the truth at seventeen that love was
meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear-skinned smiles
who married young and then
   retired.
The valentines I never knew, the Friday night
charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful.  At seventeen I
learned the truth.
And those of us with ravaged faces, lacking in
the social graces,
Desperatly remained at home, inventing lovers on
the phone
Who called to say, "Come dance with me," and
murmured vague obscenities.
It isn't all it seems at seventeen.
A brown-eyed girl in hand-me-downs whose name I
never could pronounce
Said, "Pity, please, the ones who serve; they
only get what they deserve.
The rich relationed hometown queen marries into
what she needs.
A guarantee of company and haven for the
elderly."
Remember those who win the game lose the love
they sought to gain.
In debentures of quality and dubious integrity.
Their small-town eyes will gape at you in dull
surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received at seventeen.
To those of us who know the pain of valentines
that never came,
And those whose names were never called when
choosing sides for basketball.
It was long ago and far away; the world was much
younger than today
And dreams were all they gave away for free to
ugly duckling girls like me.
We all play the game and when we dare to cheat
ourselves at solitaire.
Inventing lovers on the phone, repenting other
lives unknown
That call and say, "Come dance with me," and
murmur vague obscenities
At ugly duckling girls like me at seventeen.