Folded

Having 45 student papers sitting on my desk and traveling everywhere with me in my trusty bookbag -- puts a real damper on the creativity. Why is that? Is there a different way to be?

Here's a poem inspired by Rilke's line, "I want to unfold."

Today I would like nothing better
than to be folded,
folded like a note slipped into a book
to mark a page you don't want to forget,
or folded like a sheet tugged from the clothesline,
in half and in half again, and again.
I want to be folded the way egg whites
are folded into a meringue,
like sheep into a fold,
like an origami bird.
I'd like to be folded like a dollar bill
into a coin purse, and later taken out and unfolded,
my edges smoothed. You can spend me then
on something unexpected and delicious
like a peach or a packet of art paper
or a bar of dark chocolate
folded into its envelope of foil.