A Life in T-Shirts

Going through a closet,

I was quite surprised to find

Several shopping bags of t-shirts

That my son had left behind.

 

While looking at them, one by one,

I realized they portrayed

His entire growing up, through college,

Starting in first grade.

 

The school shirts featured P.S. 6,

Then Wagner Junior High,

With a special few from Stuyvesant,

Where high school years flew by.

 

Another group had characters

From movies or TV –

Pee Wee Herman, Austin Powers

And the Simpsons’ family tree.

 

There was Beavis, there was Butthead

And the South Park kids, as well

As World Series shirts and Yankees;

(We’re New Yorkers, you can tell).

 

Favor shirts from his Bar Mitzvah

Nestled near the travel trove –

Shirts from Scotland and from Israel,

Plus some places where we drove.

 

Then the final category,

From his favorite billiards hall,

Where the hours spent resulted

In those plaques upon his wall.

 

As a grown-up and a parent,

His collection’s surely grown,

But I love these sweet reminders

Of his younger self I’ve known.