If They Should Come for Us

In “If They Should Come for Us,” poet Fatimah Asghar works against the idea of a racialized and homogenous Muslim identity. The speaker catalogues her “people” (Line 1) as a community comprised of distinct individuals. The speaker doesn’t profile any of the individuals; instead, the speaker observes them, reporting the observations in the poem for the reader. The reader sees traditional clothing like “the old woman’s sari” (Line 6) blowing in the wind, comparing the bindi on her forehead to “a new moon” (Line 7). The image of the toddler’s head, “a fountain of dandelion seed” (Line 11), conveys fragility, movement, and life. The non-devout Muslim man “sips / good whiskey” (Lines 18-19), displaying a taste for the finer option. An auntie in traditional dress wears comfortable American “crocs” (Line 21) while a “muslim teenager” (Line 25) graces “the subway platform” (Line 27) in urban wear. Through fine details of physical description, clothing, and other personal choices, the reader can imagine the humanity of each character.

Asghar employs a different sort of detailing and specificity with her use of non-English words that draws attention to the individual identity of her people. There are only six words in the poem that are of a language other than English: azan (Line 17), maghrib (Line 19), khala (Line 20), kurta (Line 21), mashallah (Line 28), and dupattas (Line 35).