In "Basket of Figs," the speaker tells her lover to bring forth her pain, and to spread it out like fine materials, comforting food, and spices: rugs, silk sashes, warm eggs, and cinnamon and clove in a burlap sack. The speaker wants to see every detail, from the complex embroidery to the small shell buttons to the hem. The speaker notices that her lover stitched the hem of her pain in the way she was taught to: by just pricking a thread. This makes the stitchwork almost invisible.
The speaker wants her lover to unclasp her pain like gold jewelry, to eat an entire basket of figs, and to spill her wine. The speaker compares her lover's pain to a hard nugget she would suck on and savor like a pomegranate seed. In the final metaphor, the speaker says that she would tenderly lift her lover's pain the way a larger animal would carry a smaller one in the safe shelter of its mouth.
