What do you say to the white snow?

Dear white snow,
What do I say when your soft cold hands silence all the work I intend to do? How do I tell you I am in a land with community values I do not know well enough to avoid stepping over boundaries that aren't meant for me. White snow, I brought my snow shoes, you know? I am prepared in many ways, but not for this...
This new feeling, this new regime.

I wonder white snow, how I must look to you. Covered from head to toe in black. I see the way you blow around me, the way the rez dogs act.

They run in front of the car, they want your attention, they want mine. They refuse to come inside. They wait in the same spot everyday for you to come home and they stay alive despite the odds.

I wonder white snow what it means to have a school with no children and no teachers? How the work isn't going according to plan. How I guess nothing ever does or ever can.

I think about the individual. I think about myself. I think about the work to do and how to get there. I hate being useless. Sometimes you make me feel useless. I must huddle in my coat to protect my face and still there is skin I can not cover. Scars I can not erase.

This seems true for you too snow. The banks on the road so high, the ice on the ground. That feeling yesterday. The one that came all the way from Washington. You were meant to fall a day ago, but today I see your face. Your round face.

I slept all day you know. This heavy feeling in the light white snow.