This Shirt - Mary Chapin Carpenter

This shirt is old and faded

All the color’s 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 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

'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

There was 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 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