Maggie's Kitchen

For Lily's mother, Maggie. Some kitchens are just rooms; this one is a refuge. Soup on the stove, the radio low, and always a chair — no explanations required, no story you have to tell first. Mama just feeds you, and somehow she knows. Listen for the Ojibwe word ningashi — "my mother" — sung once, in the verse where she pulls up a chair of her own.