At Seventeen Lyrics

(Janis Ian)

I learned 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
Desperately 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
Say "pity, please the ones who serve, they only get what they deserve"
And the rich-relationed hometown queen marries into what she needsElsa - At Seventeen - http://motolyrics.com/elsa/at-seventeen-lyrics.html
With 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 receives at seventeen.

To those of us who knew the pain of Valentines that never came
And those whose names where never called
When choosing sides for basketball.

We all play the game and when we dare
We 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 girls like me, at seventeen.