Seventeen

That summer she let me hold her hand
And took my boyhood by surprise
Yet still I fail to understand
The hidden longing in her eyes

Not a soul might well have seen
What hands and eyes can sometimes mean
But I was blind and seventeen

That summer I bolted from the truth
Just as my sleeping heart began
To sense the sunrise of my youth
But I was still more boy than man
Lust in the language lies between
The life to come and seventeen

At seventeen you know it all
You're riding high and talking tall
You're no one's fool and no one's child
The world and you were running wild
The charm you've drawn from films and books
A strong-nosed face, approving looks
You lived the script, you looked the part
Yet you're a stranger to the heart

That summer she woke me with a kiss
And yet the prey refused the bait
The silence beckoned me to bliss
But to my shame, I saw too late

It wasn't red she meant, but green
And now I see what might have been
When I was blind and seventeen

That summer a part of me was burned
These days my act is well-rehearsed
But though I've lived, and loved, and learned
Each new affair is like the first
And I relive that summer scene
When I was blind and seventeen