Circles Appearing Randomly on Shirts

-Dan Gualtieri

No one understands
why they occur,
or what (if any)
mysterious will
governs their movements.

They will manifest
themselves for a day,
a week, or, rarely, longer,
in various sizes and places,
and disappear as suddenly
as they appeared.

Some shirt-wearers
to whom this phenomenon
has occurred report
a slight tugging or prodding
at the moment
of apparition, but
as these reports
seem to only be made
when the appearance is noticed
immediately, they are considered
questionably accurate.

Some researchers
claim that the circles
are some means
of communication,
measuring circumferences
and edge thicknesses
in an attempt to derive
some meaning,
but thus far
no pattern has been
discovered.

Various other theories
have been proposed.
Since the first recorded
instance of the phenomenon
occurred on July 16, 1945,
some postulate
an oblique connection
to the Trinity test,
the first controlled
detonation
of a nuclear bomb
(though concrete evidence
of such a connection
has never been produced).

Other theories claim
that the circles
are apocalyptic
warnings heralding
the world’s final days,
stains from some kind
of extradimensional
coffee mugs, or the sublime
imprint of some angelic
halo.