Metaphors Aplenty

Sorting Laundry by Elisavietta Ritchie consists of an extended metaphor which characterizes the relationship between the speaker and her lover.  The poem starts by saying "Folding clothes, / I think of folding you / into my life (lines 1-3)."  What follows are 13 stanzas describing the material that is in the laundry.  Her description of shirts, skirts, and pants "head over heels"  shows that she is still very much in love with her love, despite the length of their relationship.  The wrinkles that she mentions, needing to be smoothed or ignored, symbolize the mistakes and flaws in the relationship.  At the end, the speaker mentions a shirt left by her former lover.  This then makes her realize how lonely she would be without her current love.  She then stops describing the laundry and says that a mountain of wash would not be able to replace him.  This final phrase emphasizes her feelings toward her love while also referring back to the original metaphor of folding clothes to remind her of her love.