"Sorting Laundry" by Elisavietta Ritchie

Out of all the poems this week, I related most to the simplistic act of folding laundry accompanied by the complicated thoughts that went with it. All too often the simple tasks or random objects remind us of little things in the past. And we cling to those objects because of the people they connect to our lives or the memories they make come alive. All too well, I know that even in the daunting task of folding laundry, the mind strays and memories surface.
I loved how the speaker thought of "folding you into my life" as laundry was folded. The speaker recalls her love as she folds the laundry. The poem progresses with the shifting of folding different clothing items: uncoupled socks must be the time before the speaker and her lover were together. Items found in the pockets like "well-washed dollars" is the constant spending of money to pay off debts of early relationships. The necklace from Kuwait reflects on time spent apart from each other for whatever reasons. Then the speaker mentions folding "blouses, panties, stockings, and bras" in line 47, all of which can be considered semi-sexual articles of clothing. There are multiple dimensions in the relationship like the "convexes and concaves" of the clothes.