Jan3

nondescript.

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my favorite shirt

lived in

worn to softness

 tissue paper thin

color gone

shapeless and frayed 

always feels like home.

 

—

“there is a special blessing in old clothes;

that aside from their comfort,

for which especially they are to be cherished.

they confer a certain  kind of anonymity on one who wears them gladly;

all their bright places rubbed in a uniform dullness,

they achieve an appearance so nearly nondescript

that only a close scrutiny could learn that ever they held shape at all.’

-maude meagher

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80 responses »

  2. I totally get this; I have an old T-shirt from years back; it is just loose enough to feel cozy in but it still has a certain chirpiness knowing it is just right for me and I am just right for it :) I have other T-shirts ,newer, brighter — these I keep for ‘going out’ but my old T-shirt —maybe I should write a poem about it —- perhaps I am, here — I wear at home, when I walk around the ‘hood, when I hang out with friends at a barbie :) anyhow, this is just to say, your post inspired this :)

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  5. I totally understand this. As I was reading your post, I thought about those similar items that are my go-to clothes. I realize now that they exist because wearing them feels familiar, perhaps like my body is “home” inside them. Enjoy getting cozy in that shirt as much as you can!

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  12. In 1970, after I returned to the United States from two years in the Peace Corps, my uncle, who worked in New York’s garment industry, gave me six shirts. I still have two of them. Sure, their cuffs are a bit frayed, but I still occasionally wear them when I’m out in nature and expect to get grungy anyhow.

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  15. One good turn deserves another

    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

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  20. I have a favorite t-shirt that I wore for over a decade, to the point where it became too threadbare and faded to keep wearing. But I couldn’t part with it, so it’s tucked away in a hope chest now. Funny how attached we can become to even a cheap clothing item.

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  21. It’s always “awkward” for me when I have to say farewell to a favorite shirt I have literally worn to pieces…rest-in-peace(s) to all those who went before as well as those who will meet their demise going forward.🙂

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  23. That does, indeed, look like a much-beloved shirt. My husband hangs onto shirts for a long time, saying, “They’re so comfy.” I tend to wear my clothes until they wear out. For example, holes in my jeans. I do need some new flannel shirts. Maybe in a few weeks they will be on sale here in Minnesota.

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  25. I’m sitting here in my stretched-out, soft, hole-in-the-elbow long-sleeved t-shirt, nodding at everything in this post. I have another sweater that I refuse to let go of that is in even worse (perfect) shape!

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