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