At Seventeen

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I learned the truth at seventeen      That love was meant for beauty queens
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and high school girls with clear skinned smiles who married young  and then retired

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The valentines  I never knew, the friday nights, charades of youth
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were spent on one more beautiful   At seventeen I  learned the truth

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And those of us with ravaged faces, lacking in the social graces
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Desp'rat'ly remained at home, inventing lovers on the phone
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Who called and say "come dance with me" and murmured vague obscenities
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It isn't all it seems at seventeen

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A brown eyed girl in hand-me-downs, whose name I never   could pronounce said
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"Pity, please, the ones who serve, they only get what they deserve

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The rich relationed home-town queen, marries into what she needs
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A guarantee of company and  haven for the elderly"

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Remember those who win the game, lose the love they sought to gain
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In debentures of quality and dubious integrity
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Their small town eyes will gape at you in dull surprise when payment due
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exceeds accounts received at seventeen

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To those of us who know the pain of valentines    that never came
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and those whose name were never called when choosing side at basketball

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It was long ago and far away, the world was younger than today
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and dreams were all they gave for free to ugly duckling girls like me

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We all play the game and when we dare to cheat ourselves at solitaire
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Inventing lovers on the phone, repenting other lives unknown
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that call and say "Come dance with me", and murmur vague obscenities
Em7                       A7
at ugly girls like me, at seventeen