Sorting Laundry

"Sorting Laundry"
Elisavietta Ritchie

In this poem, Ritchie uses an extended metaphor of folding laundry to represent the speaker's relationship. By describing the different pieces of laundry such as the sheets, towels, and shirts, that the speaker is folding, the speaker also describes her relationship. "Pillowcases, despite so many/washings, seams still/ holding our dreams" (Ritchie). The speaker's relationship is old as shown in the phrase "so many washings". Despite its length, the relationship is still strong as described by the
"seams still holding our dreams". The pillow case shows that no matter how old the relationship may be, it has remained strong throughout time. Another description of clothing describes "all those wrinkles/ to be smoothed, or else/ ignored" (Ritchie). The wrinkles in the couple's clothing represents problems in their relationship. Despite their problems, the couple has remained together. The couple has been able to work through some problems as described by the phrase "to be smoothed". In addition, the couple has also ignored some problems. The couples problems were small enough to work through or ignore which suggests that the couple has a stable relationship.