{"product_id":"short-film-starring-my-beloveds-red-bronco-k-iver-paperback","title":"Short Film Starring My Beloved's Red Bronco -- K. Iver, Paperback","description":"\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ci\u003eShort Film Starring My Beloved's Red Bronco\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e, selected by Tyehimba Jess for the 2022 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry, \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eis an aching tribute to the power and precarity of queer love.\u003c\/strong\u003e In small-town Mississippi, before the aughts, a child \"assigned 'woman'\" and a boy \"forced to call \/ himself a girl\" love one another--from afar, behind closed doors, in motels. The child survives an injurious mother and the beast-shaped men she brings home; the boy becomes a soldier. Years later, the boy--the eponymous beloved, Missy--dies by suicide, kicking up a riptide of memory. This is where K. Iver writes, at the confluence of love poem and elegy. \"I say to the water if you were here, \/ you'd be here.\" With cinematic precision, they conjure dorm-room landlines, the lingering sweetness of shared candy, a ballet strap and \"soft \/ fingers tracing it, afraid to touch \/ the skin.\" They punctuate depictions of familial abuse and the cruel politics of the Deep South with fairy tales: a girl who endures abuse refusing to grow into a mother who inflicts it herself, queer youth kissing fearlessly, bodies transcending the violence of a reductive gender binary. In these fantasies, \"there's no \/ reason to leave town no hidden \/ torches waiting for us to fall asleep.\"\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eShort Film Starring My Beloved's Red Bronco\u003c\/i\u003e sees us through a particular kind of grief--one so relentless, it's precious. It presses us, also, to continue advocating for a world in which queer love fantasies become reality and queer love poems \"swaddle the impossible \/ contours of joy.\"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e K. Iver\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Milkweed Editions\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1\/10\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 88\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWeight:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.3 lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 8.3\" H x 5.3\" L x 0.5\" W\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9781639550609\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kotton Kandy Skies","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51806828429611,"sku":"9781639550609","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0962\/2978\/5899\/files\/9781639550609.jpg?v=1769710448","url":"https:\/\/2trc11-eq.myshopify.com\/products\/short-film-starring-my-beloveds-red-bronco-k-iver-paperback","provider":"Kotton Kandy Skies","version":"1.0","type":"link"}