Metaphor

In "Sorting Laundry" by Elisavietta Ritchie, the first stanza contains a metaphor that largely impacts the rest of the poem. The speaker compares folding clothes to "folding (her lover) into (her) life." I took this to mean that she wanted her lover with her at all times. She cannot stand to be away from him. This metaphor comes up again later in the poem when she speaks of folding her own clothes. She says that she could not do it. She could not be without her man. She says that nothing could fill that empty gap in her life. This poem is all about how she needs her man in order to function in her life. She would be lost without him.