Sorting Laundry

Throughout Ritchie's Sorting Laundry, the speaker is, well, folding laundry. The speaker compares the various pieces of laundry to her relationship with her husband. Ritchie creates an extended metaphor throughout the entirety of the poem that compares this action of folding laundry to their love. For example, Ritchie writes, "pillowcases, despite so many washings, seams still holding our dreams." The pillowcases, which of course are from the couple's bed, symbolize their relationship, and this single line provides many details about the couple's relationship. These pillowcases embody all of the intimate moments that the couple has had together ("...still holding our dreams."). Additionally, their relationship is still strong since "the seams still holding...". The relationship between the speaker and her husband has been a long one as well since the pillowcases have been through many washings.

Then, the last three stanzas shift to more serious and worrisome tone. The speaker talks of the shirt of a previous lover. Personally, I believed it was the shirt of the speaker's previous lover, and I had not even thought of the possibility of it being the shirt of her husband's previous lover. However, my support for this theory does not come from the text. I just thought that men do not take and wear their girlfriend's shirts, that just does not happen. It makes far more sense for the shirt to be the speaker's because she would have been the one to wear her previous lover's clothing.