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 for anyone to see This shirt is what 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 our delays This shirt was lost for three whole days in a town near Buffalo Till I found the locker key in a downtown trailways bus depot This shirt was the one I lent you and when you gave it back It was a rip inside the sleeve where you rolled your cigarettes Was a 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 a place your cat decided to give birth to five And we stayed up all night watching and we wept when the last one died This shirt is just an old faded piece of cotton Shining like the memories inside those silver buttons This shirt is a grand old relic with a grand old history I wear it now for Sunday chores, cleaning 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