Violence and Language (If They Come for Us)

Language is the first offense.

Every piece in Asghar's collection carries the pain of displacement, the kind of displacement that starts with being "illiterate in the tongues of your father". Asghar uses language like a mouth full of juicy fruits. Economy of language is not applied to her work in this collection and that choice is so powerful. Her work is heavy and language takes center stage so that her reader can experience (at least for a little while) what it feels like to be "all mouth". Specifically, in "Oil" Asghar use of language fascinates me. Her ability to create a war zone on the page through words is haunting and very real. When I reached this piece I thought of the implications of the title. Its duality. Oil and the violence that is committed to the earth, soil and people to access it. I also thought of oil and its healing properties. The ways it has been used in South Asian cultures for sacred rituals, food and their own health.