At Seventeen - Twiggy

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 nights, 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

Desp’ratly re[mained at home inventing lovers on the phone

Who called and 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 home-town 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 name were never called when choosing side at basketball

It was long ago and far away_ The world was younger than today

And dreams were all they gave 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 girls like me, at seventeen