A lonely mother struggles to find her place in a new neighborhood and clings to the one-sided relationship she has formed with her children’s babysitter in Kate Finlinson‘s “Sugarhouse.” Matthew Sidney Parsons cooks up memory and place in “Braise with Salt Potatoes.” Richie Hofmann excavates memory and desire as he investigates the fragile nature of our bodies and souls in four poems including “The Bronzes.” These poems are excerpted from Hofmann’s third full-length collection, The Bronze Arms, a queer coming-of-age, tinged with myth, published by Alfred A. Knopf and available for purchase on February 10, 2026.