Fatimah Asghar's If They Should Come for Us. Literature Essay

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If They Should Come For Us
Fatimah Asghar's “If They Should Come for Us” by is a free-verse, one stanza poem. I was fascinated by how it shows the life of foreigners or immigrants who live in a new country. In my opinion, it seems as if Asghar was reflecting her entire life in the United States of America (USA). As a young Pakistani woman, who was also a Muslim, growing up in the USA was challenging. The speaker was an orphan who lived with her uncle and aunt. The poem makes me pity young people who migrate to new countries, particularly when their parents pass away, or their countries are at war. When reading the poem, I vividly saw some of the problems that Asghar coped up with while growing up in the USA as a Muslim immigrant.
At some point, Asghar says, “a dance of strangers in my blood” (Asghar Line 5). The speaker means that it was extremely difficult for her to get used to a mix of cultures in the USA. Specifically, I would see how she stood out in the presence of other white children due to her skin color. Moreover, being a Muslim is another thing that contributed to discrimination by others, especially if he wore a hijab. The speaker depicts how it is hard to adapt to a new way of life. Overall, the narrator is correct and shows that cultural assimilation is not a straightforward process.
Asghar’s poem relates to my life experiences and knowledge. A person does not have to migrate to a new country to experience some of the things portrayed by the poem. For example, discrimination and religi...