If They Come For Us

an aunt teaches me how to tell an edible flower from a poisonous one. just in case, I hear her say, just in case. This imaginative, soulful debut poetry collection captures the experiences of being a young Pakistani Muslim woman in 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 marginalised people‘s histories with her own understanding of identity, place and belonging. ‘I leave these poems so deeply moved . . . There is such fierce, resilient awe everywhere here. Such poems embolden me into love and dreaming and action‘ Aracelis Girmay