This Shirt

This shirt is old and faded
All the colors washed away
I've had it now for more damn years
Than I can count anyway
I wear it beneath my jacket
With the collar turned up high
So old I should replace it
But I'm not about to try

This shirt's got silver buttons
And a place upon the sleeve
Where I used to set my heart up
Right there where anyone could see
This shirt is the one I wore to every boring high school dance
Where the boys ignored the girls and we all pretended to like the band

This shirt was a pillow for my head on a train through Italy
This shirt was a blanket beneath the love we made in Argeles
This shirt was lost for three whole days in a town near Buffalo
'Til I found the locker key in a downtown Trailways bus depot

This shirt is the one I lent you
And when you gave it back
It had a rip inside the sleeve
Where you rolled your cigarettes
It was the place I put my heart now
Look at where you put a tear
I forgave your thoughtlessness
But not the boy who put it there

This shirt was the place your cat decided to give birth to five
And we stayed up all night watchin'
And we wept when the last one died
This shirt is just an old, faded piece of cotton
Shinin' like memories inside those silver buttons

This shirt is a grand, old relic
With a grand old history
I wear it now for Sunday chores
Cleanin' house and raking leaves
I wear it beneath my jacket with the collar turned up high
So old I should replace it
But I'm not about to try