At Seventeen - 齐豫
Learned the I truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty
Queens
And high school girls with clear
Siknned 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 browneyed girl in hand me
Downs
Whose name I never could pronounce
Said pity please the ones who
Serve
They only get what they deserve
And the rich relationed home town
Queen
Marries into what she needs
With a guarantee of company and
Haven for the elderly
Remember those who with the game
Lose the love they sought to
Gain
In debentures of quality and dubious
Integrity
The small town eyes would gape
At you in dull surprise
When payment due exceeds accounts received
At seventeen
To those of us who knew
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 younger than today
And dreams were all they gave
For free
To ugly duckling girls like me
We all played the game and
When we dared
To cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inverting lovers on the phone
Repenting other lives unknown
They call and say come dance
With me
And murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me at
Seventeen
