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If They Come for Us: Poems Kindle Edition
“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)
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOne World
- Publication dateAugust 7, 2018
- File size5195 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“[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
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
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
- ASIN : B07637XY5N
- Publisher : One World (August 7, 2018)
- Publication date : August 7, 2018
- Language : English
- File size : 5195 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 130 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #990,947 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #218 in Asian American Poetry
- #616 in Love & Erotic Poetry
- #777 in Women's Poetry
- Customer Reviews:
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the poetry in the book inspiring and sweet. They describe it as a wonderful, thought-provoking read that rings true with honesty and truth. The book is described as honest and real.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers enjoy the poetry collection. They find the poems inspirational, sweet, graphic, funny, saddening, hopeful, and creative with forms. The poems explore themes like culture and identity of the poet.
"...time invites you to learn about and understand the culture and identity of the poet. Some of these poems absolutely floored me...." Read more
"Beautifully written, funny and creative with forms..." Read more
"...It was honest, open and beautiful... even if the prose were just a tad imperfect. Actually, maybe more so because of that...." Read more
"...There were many moments of such beautiful, heartbreaking images exploring the political, personal, and corporeal landscape post-partition...." Read more
Customers find the book easy to read and engaging. They say it's a great read for poetry clubs, thought-provoking, and informative. The writing is great and accessible for students who aren't familiar with literature.
"...Wow that sounds like a bot wrote it... this was just a really good book, okay?" Read more
"...Is this the best book of poetry ever written? No. But it's good, and it's important...." Read more
"Beautiful book, for content it is great. However, the book’s cover had some clear, sticky substance lightly splattered over it which bummed me out." Read more
"Beautiful text! Accessible and engaging for students who might not live literature yet ambiguous for higher levels...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's authenticity. They find it honest, truthful, and enlightening. The book is described as real, factual, and humorous. It serves as a powerful introduction for beginners to poetry.
"This incredible collection is full of politics and identity and self discovery and highlighting differences, but at the same time invites you to..." Read more
"...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...." Read more
"What I loved about this work is that, as a friend put it, "Fatimah excavates the truth." I felt that as I explored the collection...." Read more
"...and culture should learn about and this poetry book is a powerful introduction to beginners...." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2020This 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.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2018Beautifully written, funny and creative with forms (almost every poem tries something new, from mad lib style news stories to a screenplay about the author’s family fleeing Kashmir during Partition). If you’re any minority at all and even remotely interested in history or coming-of-age poems, you’ll enjoy this. I would recommend it to everyone since these are such important conversations which too few people have. Wow that sounds like a bot wrote it... this was just a really good book, okay?
- Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2019A 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.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2021The 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.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2019What I loved about this work is that, as a friend put it, "Fatimah excavates the truth." I felt that as I explored the collection. No one was safe from questioning, not even herself. There were many moments of such beautiful, heartbreaking images exploring the political, personal, and corporeal landscape post-partition. A raw coming-of-age narrative everyone should read--stories that shouldn't be forgotten.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2019Beautiful book, for content it is great. However, the book’s cover had some clear, sticky substance lightly splattered over it which bummed me out.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2019Beautiful text! Accessible and engaging for students who might not live literature yet ambiguous for higher levels. I’m so excited to use selections of this text in both my 11th grade ELL co-taught classes as well as my AP literature classes.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2023This 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!
Top reviews from other countries
- N. RogallReviewed in the United Kingdom on July 18, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars First book of poetry I have bought for 40 years
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
- Aayu Bajaj- @paintinbooksReviewed in India on August 11, 2020
4.0 out of 5 stars Her poems are deeply moving and intelligently written about the keen observations in her life
“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.
Aayu Bajaj- @paintinbooks
Reviewed in India on August 11, 2020
& 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.
Images in this review -
LauraReviewed in Germany on July 26, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Umwerfend
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.
- Irene RafieiReviewed in Spain on September 14, 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Go READ this book
Unbelievably beautiful.
- Kat DavisReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2021
4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful
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.