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Fatimah Asghar

If They Come for Us: Poems Paperback – August 7, 2018

by Fatimah Asghar (Author)

4.6 403 ratings

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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“A debut poetry collection showcasing both a fierce and tender new voice.”—Booklist
“Elegant and playful . . . The poet invents new forms and updates classic ones.”—Elle
“[Fatimah] Asghar interrogates divisions along lines of nationality, age, and gender, illuminating the forces by which identity is fixed or flexible.”—The New Yorker

NAMED ONE OF THE TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY • FINALIST FOR THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD

an aunt teaches me how to tell
an edible flower
from a poisonous one.
just in case, I hear her say, just in case.

From a co-creator of the Emmy-nominated web series Brown Girls comes an imaginative, soulful debut poetry that collection captures the experiences of being a young Pakistani Muslim woman in contemporary America. Orphaned as a child, Fatimah Asghar grapples with coming of age and navigating questions of sexuality and race without the guidance of a mother or father. These poems at once bear anguish, joy, vulnerability, and compassion, while also exploring the many facets of violence: how it persists within us, how it is inherited across generations, and how it manifests itself in our relationships. In experimental forms and language both lyrical and raw, Asghar seamlessly braids together marginalized people’s histories with her own understanding of identity, place, and belonging.

Praise for If They Come for Us

“In forms both traditional . . . and unorthodox . . . Asghar interrogates divisions along lines of nationality, age, and gender, illuminating the forces by which identity is fixed or flexible. Most vivid and revelatory are pieces such as ‘Boy,’ whose perspicacious turns and irreverent idiom conjure the rich, jagged textures of a childhood shadowed by loss.”—The New Yorker

“[Asghar’s] debut poetry collection cemented her status as one of the city’s greatest present-day poets. . . . A stunning work of art that tackles place, race, sexuality and violence. These poems—both personal and historical, both celebratory and aggrieved—are unquestionably powerful in a way that would doubtless make both Gwendolyn Brooks and Harriet Monroe proud.”—Chicago Review of Books

“Taut lines, vivid language, and searing images range cover to cover. . . . Inventive, sad, gripping, and beautiful.”—Library Journal (starred review)

Print length

128 pages
Language

English
Publisher

One World
Publication date

August 7, 2018
Dimensions

5.6 x 0.4 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

052550978X
ISBN-13

978-0525509783
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“An outstanding collection of poetry . . . wonderful play with form . . . These poems cover so much—identity, loss, brown girlhood, the complicated bonds of family, what home is when home is torn apart. Much to admire here. [I] will be thinking about these poems for a long time to come.”—Roxane Gay

“[Fatimah] Asghar presents a debut poetry collection showcasing both a fierce and tender new voice. . . . Through simultaneously lyrical and frank poems like ‘Kal,’ ‘Ghareeb,’ and ‘Halal,’ Asghar allows poignant contradictions to rise to the surface.”—Booklist

“In forms both traditional . . . and unorthodox . . . Asghar interrogates divisions along lines of nationality, age, and gender, illuminating the forces by which identity is fixed or flexible. Most vivid and revelatory are pieces such as ‘Boy,’ whose perspicacious turns and irreverent idiom conjure the rich, jagged textures of a childhood shadowed by loss.”—The New Yorker

“This summer, [Asghar’s] debut poetry collection cemented her status as one of the city’s greatest present-day poets. . . . A stunning work of art that tackles place, race, sexuality and violence. These poems—both personal and historical, both celebratory and aggrieved—are unquestionably powerful in a way that would doubtless make both Gwendolyn Brooks and Harriet Monroe proud.”—Chicago Review of Books

“If They Come for Us is a searing search for self.”—Electric Literature

“If They Come for Us is a remarkable debut collection, and Asghar’s poetic voice strikes a singular note in several places. Not one of the 44 poems in it feels superfluous. Asghar may unapologetically rip the reader’s heart open, but she also sutures it with the utmost tenderness and care.”—Live Mint

“Every age has its poets who spring-load every line with the personal and political so that you know what it was to be fully alive in that time and place—or torn from it. Asghar provides this anguished specificity in her debut poetry collection, a meditation on identity, dislocation, and loss. . . . Taut lines, vivid language, and searing images range cover to cover. . . . Inventive, sad, gripping, and beautiful.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“In this awe-inspiring debut, Asghar, writer of the Emmy-nominated web series ‘Brown Girls,’ explores the painful, sometimes psychologically debilitating journey of establishing her identity as a queer brown woman within the confines of white America. . . . Honest, personal, and intimate without being insular or myopic, Asghar’s collection reveals a sense of strength and hope found in identity and cultural history.’”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

About the Author

Fatimah Asghar is a nationally touring poet, performer, educator, and writer. She is the writer of Brown Girls, an Emmy-nominated web series that highlights friendships between women of color. She is a member of Dark Noise and a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

For Peshawar

december 16, 2014

Before attacking schools in Pakistan, the Taliban sends kafan, a white cloth that marks Muslim burials, as a form of psychological terror.

From the moment our babies are born

are we meant to lower them into the ground?

To dress them in white? They send flowers

before guns, thorns plucked from stem.

Every year I manage to live on this earth

I collect more questions than answers.

In my dreams, the children are still alive

at school. In my dreams they still play.

I wish them a mundane life.

Arguments with parents. Groundings.

Chasing a budding love around the playground.

Iced mango slices in the hot summer.

Lassi dripping from lips.

Fear of being unmarried. Hatred of the family

next door. Kheer at graduation. Fingers licked

with mehndi. Blisters on the back of a heel.

Loneliness in a bookstore. Gold chapals.

Red kurtas. Walking home, sun

at their backs. Searching the street

for a missing glove. Nothing glorious.

A life. Alive. I promise.

I didn’t know I needed to worry

about them

until they were gone.

My uncle gifts me his earliest memory:

a parking lot full of corpses.

No kafan to hide their eyes

no white to return them to the ground.

In all our family histories, one wrong

turn & then, death. Violence

not an over there but a memory lurking

in our blood, waiting to rise.

We know this from our nests—

the bad men wanting to end us. Every year

we call them something new:

British. Sikhs. Hindus. Indians. Americans. Terrorists.

The dirge, our hearts, pounds vicious, as we prepare

the white linen, ready to wrap our bodies.

Partition

you’re kashmiri until they burn your home. take your orchards. stake a different flag. until no one remembers the road that brings you back. you’re indian until they draw a border through punjab. until the british captains spit paki as they sip your chai, add so much foam you can’t taste home. you’re seraiki until your mouth fills with english. you’re pakistani until your classmates ask what that is. then you’re indian again. or some kind of spanish. you speak a language until you don’t. until you only recognize it between your auntie’s lips. your father was fluent in four languages. you’re illiterate in the tongues of your father. your grandfather wrote persian poetry on glasses. maybe. you can’t remember. you made it up. someone lied. you’re a daughter until they bury your mother. until you’re not invited to your father’s funeral. you’re a virgin until you get too drunk. you’re muslim until you’re not a virgin. you’re pakistani until they start throwing acid. you’re muslim until it’s too dangerous. you’re safe until you’re alone. you’re american until the towers fall. until there’s a border on your back.

Kal

Allah, you gave us a language

where yesterday & tomorrow

are the same word. Kal.

A spell cast with the entire

mouth. Back of the throat

to teeth. Tomorrow means I might

have her forever. Yesterday means

I say goodbye, again.

Kal means they are the same.

I know you can bend time.

I am merely asking for what

is mine. Give me my mother for no

other reason than I deserve her.

If yesterday & tomorrow are the same

pluck the flower of my mother’s body

from the soil. Kal means I’m in the crib,

eyelashes wet as she looks over me.

Kal means I’m on the bed,

crawling away from her, my father

back from work. Kal means she’s

dancing at my wedding not-yet come.

Kal means she’s oiling my hair

before the first day of school. Kal

means I wake to her strange voice

in the kitchen. Kal means

she’s holding my unborn baby

in her arms, helping me pick a name.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ One World; First Edition (August 7, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 052550978X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0525509783
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 0.4 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #220,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #38 in Asian American Poetry
- #427 in Love Poems
- #493 in Poetry by Women

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4.6 403 ratings

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Christina Poss

Melancholy and reflective

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2023

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This collection of poetry is deep, melancholy, and reflective. This is the first poetry book I’ve read that centers on the Pakistan India partition. The partition was a brutal time in the 1940’s that tore India into two countries based off culture and religion (Pakistani Muslims and Indian Hindus). Every Pakistani family has a partition story, and Fatimah’s poetry is such a beautiful way to process that collective, generational trauma. The partition is such an important world event that every person and culture should learn about and this poetry book is a powerful introduction to beginners.

🏳️‍🌈Since publishing this poetry book, Fatimah now identifies as non-binary and so this was a perfect poetry book club read for pride month. Fatimah has a poem in this collection called “Other body” that specifically talks about gender nonconformity. Thanks to @jenny for choosing this book for our poetry club. It was such a deep and informative read!

🌻Note: For fans of Rupi Kuar (author of the sun and her flowers), this book reminded me of her poetry collections in many ways, including topics and tone.

P.S. The Disney series Ms. Marvel also covers the India Pakistan partition and centers on a Pakistani family. I recommend that for fans of superheroes and diverse representation!

Helpful

beautiful, and necessary

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2019

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A debut poetry collection that looks into what it's like to be a Pakistani Muslim woman in America. Filled with anger, joy, confusion and love, she tells her story. A story of being orphaned, coming of age without a mother, questions about race and sexuality, and love for a world that put a target on her back. For such a short book, it packs a wallop.

Is this the best book of poetry ever written? No. But it's good, and it's important. I find myself gravitating more and more toward stories about immigrants or other cultures in America, what they have to deal with, how they try to adapt, because I fear becoming complacent- forgetting for even a moment that what is so easy for me isn't for everyone- that we aren't all equal in other's eyes even if everyone is in mine. Does this make sense or am I just rambling? For me, the first step toward making an America that loves and accepts everyone is accepting the differences and the past- what they had to go through and their heritage. I want to understand how others feel, because ignorance is just not an option. As I have always found I learn and understand best when things are written, it just makes sense for me to seek books like these out.

Excuse me while I climb down from my soap box. The poems and exerts here made me smile sometimes, and cry in others. It made me feel, as all good writing should. I found pieces that surprised me, and resonated with me. It was honest, open and beautiful... even if the prose were just a tad imperfect. Actually, maybe more so because of that. For me, this is a four star collection.

On the adult content, there's some language and it does touch on some more adult themes but I still see this as being very teen friendly. I give it a three.

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Deana M. Sanders

Expand your horizons

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2019

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I’ll admit it. I like haiku and limericks. Sonnets are too long.

I only want to look at one page and get the idea. Short and sweet.

Asghar’s poetry was longer than that. It sometimes covered many pages, but in those pages, I got the full picture of life as a young Muslim women from a family separated by the partition of India and Pakistan who immigrated to the US. It is a timely book in our world today. To live in two worlds and to be accepted fully by neither.

One poem that sticks in my memory is the Microaggression Grid, which is like a bingo board. Being asked about the hijab, being told that her family is sooo authentic, having her name mispronounced by the teacher on the last day of school, and everyone thinking that she was an expert yogi are just a few blocks on the board.

Yes, it was outside my comfort zone – both the topic and the format. It was a small but powerful book where I read a few poems at a time and thought about them afterwards. That is what the Modern Mrs. Darcy challenge is about.

One person found this helpful

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Spivey

Amazing

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

This incredible collection is full of politics and identity and self discovery and highlighting differences, but at the same time invites you to learn about and understand the culture and identity of the poet. Some of these poems absolutely floored me. The first Partition floored me in a very different way than White Lie floored me or My Love for Nature floored me. With every turn of the page there was something unexpected and foreign to me, but also so viscerally familiar I felt as though we were living a mirrored childhood even though the similarities were only in the way it felt remembered. Absolutely amazing collection. I went in not knowing what to expect and left completely amazed at the power behind these words.

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Linda Whitley

A Light

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2019

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The book was first and foremost so enlightening. I learned so much about partition and plan to learn so much more. I heard Fatimah Asghar read at Split this Rock and have been excited to dive into the since then. The poetry is playful and gutteral, light and dark. It is breaking and healing all at the same time. I appreciate that she doesn't italicize anything which forces you to do your research and question the ease of understanding you take for granted as an English speaker. The book is an invitation into the experience of being "other" and traversing culture, never really being a part of either. Longing for home. "If They Come For Us" is an introduction to a great poet I can't wait to re-meet.

4 people found this helpful

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Miss K

A Riveting Read

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2019

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Fatimah's poetry collection was passionate, clever, real, factual, graphic, funny, saddening, hopeful, and touching. I got insight into the lives of Indian women, and Indian people in general, as far as their reality and feelings, as Americans and as foreigners. It is an eye opener and Fatimah is quite the talented poet. Her writing kept me enthralled from beginning to end. I give this book four stars and would recommend it to people of all ethnicities, women especially.

Helpful

Freda Martin

Very inspirational poems!!

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2021

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The poetry in this book helps me to understand the courage of those who are so discounted and oppressed. I was inspired by them to act better and do better with others.

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Aayu Bajaj- @paintinbooks

Her poems are deeply moving and intelligently written about the keen observations in her life

Reviewed in India on August 11, 2020

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“Nobody in India will love me
& so I drew them a line”
-Cyril Radcliffe, who drew borders of partitions in less than 40 days without ever previously visiting South Asia.

Honestly, I read this book twice before even sitting down to write this review. The poetry is so deep, powerful and full of emotions that I felt the need to read this book again to feel the emotions which I may have missed the first time.

This debut book of poems by Fatimah Asghar explores the history and difficulties of 1947 partition, the inheritances of violence, struggles of being a brown woman in the USA, vacuum created by loss of parents early in life and explorations of the body. In 100 pages, the book gives you so much to grasp, understand and sink in your soul.

Her poems are deeply moving and intelligently written about the keen observations in her life. I am sure that her poetry will find its new form of saying and will give you a rush of emotions every time you pick up this book.

This book touched my heart. I highly recommend this to poetry lovers.

N. Rogall

First book of poetry I have bought for 40 years

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 18, 2022

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I haven’t bought a book of poetry for decades. But after reading one of her poems on Facebook, I ordered this
It is such a stimulating collection. From the heart rending incisive poems about partition to the humorous and painful poems about growing up the collection displays an amazing talent

One person found this helpful

Kat Davis

Powerful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2021

Verified Purchase

A very powerful collection of poetry. It doesn't pull any punches and gets to the heart of the matter of belonging, difference, ignorance, displacement, and ostracism. yet there is also love, friendship and family here. Very well expressed and vivid. Great read.

Chris Cambell

A really solid collection of poetry...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2018

Verified Purchase

I was a big fan of the concept behind the book and, while I didn't love this book as much as many of my peers, it delivers a really great experience. Plenty to learn from, be intrigued by, and the occasional challenge here and there.

Laura

Umwerfend

Reviewed in Germany on July 26, 2019

Verified Purchase

Fatimah Asghar reißt mit jedem Gedicht mit. Geschichte, Emotionen, Hoffnungen. Wunderschöne Sprache. Jedes Gedicht ganz verschieden, und doch ist ein sehr klarer, sehr gut erkennbarer persönlicher Stil da.

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