Sorting Laundry

When I first started reading this poem, I thought it was going to be a love poem looking back and reminiscing on good times that she had with her significant other. Certain pieces of the laundry had a specific memory tied with them. I also thought it was somewhat ironic that all of the good memories of laundry and her lover turned into bad memories. Therefore, the tone of this poem is very bittersweet. The author made an implication that the speaker found another women's belongings tied into her husbands clothes. In lines 40-43, the speaker says "broken necklace of good gold you brought from Kuwait, the strangely tailored shirt left by a former lover..." I assumed that this former lover is the woman that the main had an affair with. The imagery in this poem really makes it possible to see a women folding laundry and discovering this hidden secret. All of the diction, relating to laundry, helps the reader to understand what exactly the theme of the poem is. In the end, the speaker comments that no amount of laundry can fill the empty side of the bed where her husband or lover used to be. So, yeah, I was completely wrong with my first insight about this poem.