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 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   'Till 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 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