In Brood, Kimiko Hahn trains her eye on the commonplace--clothespins, bees, papaya, perfume, poached eggs, a sponge, fire, sand dollars--and reveals their very essence in concise evocative language. Underlying these little gems is a sense of loss, a mother's death or a longing for childhood. "Brood" connotes the bundling of family or beasts, but also dark thinking, and both are at play here where the less said, the better. Kimiko Hahn is...