A Poem by Fatima Asghar

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Karen Edmisten HERE. Thank you for hosting!

I just came home from browsing in the poetry section of our local bookstore. I wanted to discover a poet I didn’t know, and I did. I brought home IF THEY COME FOR US, by Fatimah Asghar. She is a Pakistani Muslim living in America.

From the book jacket: “Asghar seamlessly braids together marginalized people’s histories with her own understanding of Identity, place, and belonging.”

Her poems deal with living in a country where she feels hated and endangered. The poem below begins by mentioning the Taliban and I, for one, am beginning to understand viscerally the kind of vulnerability that inspired this poem. Especially after losing so many children lately.

Her entire poem “For Peshawar” can be found HERE. Here are a few stanzas: 

EXERPT FROM "FOR PESHAWAR"
December 16, 2014
by Fatimah Asghar

Before attacking school in Pakistan, the Taliban sends kaftan, a white cloth that marks Muslim burials, as a form of  psychological terror. 

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. Goundings.

Chasing a budding love around the playground.
Iced Mango slices in hot summer. 

Lassi dripping from lips.
Fear of being unmarried. Hatred of family

next door. Kheer at graduation. Fingers licked
with mehndi. Blisters on the back of a heel.

Mendhi are henna tattoos that I know are popular in India. Kheer is the name in India for Rice Pudding. We want similar pleasures for all children. The language in this poem reflects a different culture but like all people, we have more in common than different.

I wrote this today, inspired by Asghar’s poem. 

AN ORDINARY LIFE
(Inspired by "For Peshawar" by Fatima Asghar) 

I wish all children 
to live long enough,
to know they are part of 
something bigger.

I wish them ice cream 
on a summer night,  
friends to love always, 
the hurt of breaking up, 

good health 
and what it feels like
to grow as tall 
as parents.

to see your mother's face 
in the mirror, 
or your father's,
and be glad for it. 

© Janice Scully (draft) 2022 








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Thank you, Karen for hosting! I hope all teachers and librarians have an especially joyful summer.

Janice

12 thoughts on “A Poem by Fatima Asghar”

  2. Yes, we are all one, if only everyone believed that. The poignancy of Fatima’s poem and then yours reflects the sadness felt for a long time, for the children. The way you have shown the hope of growing up in your final verse is breathtaking, Janice. We do not see until we’re older, do we? Thank you.

  3. Thank you for the poem. Rather than focusing on the violence and loss, it shows a deep grief over what has been lost. A life is made up of good times and bad. Wishing for the children to have it all includes both. I love the line about growing as tall as your parents.

  4. Both Fatima’s and your poems are timely and powerful. It is so sad and disheartening to know that this feeling of being unsafe is shared by children in many cultures.

  5. Janice—your poem is beautiful and heart wrenching…Thank you for sharing. Fatima’s work is so powerful, as well, and I appreciate knowing about this beautiful book.

  6. I’m not familiar with Fatima’s poems so I appreciate you sharing one of them here. Your poem touched my heart. I hope lots of people have the opportunity to read it! xo

  8. Such a poignantly beautiful pair of poems, Janice. thank you for introducing us to Fatima’s work, and hugs to you and all in America questioning how to change this senseless situation.

  9. Janice, thank you so much for introducing me to Fatima’s work. It is such a powerful poem that digs deep, especially in light of the Uvalde tragedy. Your poem is a wonderful companion piece to Fatima’s poem. You made me stop to think about ordinary life and how many do not respect it as being significant enough. There are so many children that have less than an ordinary life and this is sad.

  10. I really enjoyed both the poem you wrote and the poem you shared. You were the first to share in Poetry Friday and I am so far the last. I look for ward to reading the rest of the poems, I hope they are all as evocative as yours.

  11. Thanks for a heads-up on a new poet. Her poem was a good mentor text for yours. Let’s keep those wishes and prayers flowing…and take ACTION against gun violence.

  12. Thanks for sharing Fatimah’s powerfully sad poem Janice. “I wish them only a mundane life.” So much pain lies within this line, and desire. And thanks for your poem too, for sharing these threads of importance.

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