Skip to content

Today's Hours:
The library is open today from 9am - 9pm

Day 11: Boombox Ode: Enjoy the Silence by K. Iver

Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language. 

Boombox Ode: Enjoy the Silence

by K. Iver

A landline lets me dance with you.

My one-deck and your two-deck

are dialed to 98.5 fm without

an echo. If we speak aloud

this miracle of fiber wire

and radio wave, harmony

could split. From our speakers:

soft synth, a baseline, a choir

reverbing, a guitar riff that rises

and falls, asks and answers. I can’t

see your movement, the bedroom

you’re quiet in. Somewhere, bodies

like ours are pulsing under the same

pink neon to the same words

like violence, break–Bodies like ours

are touching and strangers watch

only because they’re gorgeous.

Let me pretend you’re back in my

bedroom, before my mother found us.

You’ve risen from the pine floor

and pulled me up. You want me

to stand for this. Let me pretend

all I’ve ever wanted, all I’ve ever needed

is here. Tell me that’ll be us. Soon.


Copyright © 2022 by K. Iver. Originally published in The Adroit Journal, April 2022.


About the Author

Author headshotK. Iver is a nonbinary trans poet from Mississippi. Their work has appeared in Boston Review, Gulf Coast, The Adroit, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. They are the 2021-2022 Ronald Wallace Poetry Fellow for the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. They have a Ph.D. in Poetry at Florida State University.

Queer Poem a Day graphic

Queer Poem a Day


Queer Poem-a-Day is directed by poet and teacher Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Deerfield Public Library. Music for this second year of our series is the first movement, Schéhérazade, from Masques, Op. 34, by Karol Szymanowski, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by generous donations from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission.

Deerfield Public Library

Install Deerfield Public Library

Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.

Just tap then “Add to Home Screen”

Accessibility Toolbar