What metaphors are used in Ordinary Words by Ruth Stone?

Stone employs a variety of metaphors in her poem. When she writes, "because your clothes have become / a bundle of rags," she does not mean that her husband is sloppy, but that he is dead. His clothes are rags because they have deteriorated over time. When she writes that her insult "went behind your skull," she means that her words hurt her husband deeply. She uses "skull" figuratively to emphasize the degree to which her name-calling penetrated his emotions and thinking.