If They Come for Us

Description

A debut poetry collection that moves with fierce tenderness, this book follows a young Pakistani Muslim woman’s coming of age in contemporary America—learning, loving, and surviving without the steady guidance of a mother or father. Through experimental forms and lyrical, raw language, the poems interrogate how identity is shaped and policed across lines of nationality, age, and gender, while tracing the many faces of violence: inherited, internalized, and enacted in relationships. Tender moments of instruction and imagination sit alongside searing reckonings, creating a vivid portrait of belonging that is both personal and historically aware. With the inventiveness and emotional clarity of a major new voice, these poems braid marginalized histories with intimate experience, asking what it means to be safe, seen, and fully human.

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