"Folding clothes, / I think of folding you / into my life." (Lines 1-3)
The speaker of this poem has some odd obsession with laundry that I can only justify in my mind by saying that it is a symbol of something else. She believes that clean laundry will result in a good relationship with her significant other (let's assume it's her husband). Boom! Symbolism! Clean laundry symbolizes good relationship. Check. The most obvious symbol to follow this first one is that dirty laundry or unwashed laundry that is piling up would symbolize the demise of her relationship. The more personal analysis of this poem is that the laundry represents old memories for the speaker that she enjoys recalling: "Towels...for the beach," "forgotten matches," and a "broken necklace of good gold / you brought from Kuwait." They all stand for a scene of her life with her husband. They are the greatest and most important symbols to her because they are little bits of emotion. The speaker happens to be remembering these particular scenes because she fears she must documenting them for a time when she can no longer make new memories with her love.
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