L'hedli T'enneh

Snow arrived yesterday.
Today is the first day below -10c .
And I wondered how cold was it
100 years ago?
as those people moved those people
as those in Fort George
moved the L'hedli T'enneh
- people of the confluence -
upstream of the confluence
to a place we now call shelly

I was struck by the memory of
winter, cold ears, as I stood greeting
the sun, standing with trees that
were witness to
the memories I don't have,
knowledge I do

birds flying through still branches
heavy with snow and sunlight
...
The coming coldness
fallen snow, 100 years ago
putting gardens to sleep
smoking meat, pushed from
the name sake, 'people of
the confluence' relocated
up stream to inhabit either
side of the fraser, a new name
sake of a man who 'found' a
watershed home of 13 languages
and peoples who've lived here
for more than 10 000 years
and would have probably had
rich conversation with jesus,
had he been a sailor not a carpenter

100 years ago
the snow fell, and temperatures dropped
and those people moved those other
people to a new place, despite
their namesake, l'hedli t'enneh
and I type this in a prince george
house that I rent on the very place
where people have lived, in good
ways, far longer than the calendar
of jesus christ.
Nov.18 2011