Karaoké At Seventeen Céline Dion

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

And 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 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 payments due

Exceeds accounts received at seventeen

And 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

And 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 we cheat ourselves at solitaire

Inventing lovers on the phone repenting other lives unknown

That call and say come dance with me and murmured vague obscenities

At ugly girls like me at seventeen