In "These are the times we live in (I)," British-Pakistani poet Imtiaz Dharker reflects darkly on discrimination and Islamophobia in the early 21st century. The poem follows a speaker (implied to be a voice for Dharker herself) as they face a border agent at an airport. The prejudiced agent is suspicious of the speaker because of their foreign-sounding name and their travel history, and he makes no secret of his suspicion: he rudely stares the speaker down, comparing them to their passport photo at length. Such humiliating treatment, the speaker reflects, is "a sign of the times we live in": the early 21st century, a time when the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the wars that followed fed a terrible explosion of xenophobia and Islamophobia in the western world. Dharker published this poem in her 2006 collection The Terrorist at My Table.
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You hand over ...
... we live in.
You shrink to ...
... arm or leg.
Nothing is quite ...
... we live in.
In front of ...
... at you suspiciously.
That's when you ...
... you over completely.
And all that's ...
... out your heart.
Half your face ...
... as it lands.
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
A Short Biography — Learn more about Dharker through her publisher, Bloodaxe Books.
A Celebration of Dharker — Read an article praising Dharker's work, written after she won the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
Dharker's Website — Visit Dharker's personal website to learn more about her poetry and other creative projects.
The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of the poem.