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   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   Said, "Pity, please, the ones who serve   'Cause they only get what they deserve"      And the rich relationed hometown queen   Marries into what she needs   With a guarantee of company   And haven for the elderly      So 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 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   When 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      They call and say, "Come on, dance with me"   And murmur vague obscenities   At ugly girls like me at seventeen