AIN’T NOBODY DOPE AS ME AT 14 (Poem)

AIN’T NOBODY DOPE AS ME AT 14

By Farah Lawal Harris, 2025

“Ain’t nobody dope as me.”

I was neither fresh nor clean,

but even at fourteen,

I knew to repeat it til’ I believe it.

Angry, my upper back sticky from

half a mixed drink spilled clumsily

by the tipsy bitch behind me

who was lucky, I threatened,

because nothing and nobody

was finna interrupt my chance to see

Daddy Fat Sacks and Andre 3 Stacks,

his blonde wig and his fur pants—

not the college students behind me

pushing to get close to the stage,

not my new Chinese slippers getting caked with mud on their first day,

not the contact high offering to carry me away.

Ain’t nobody dope as me—

my first concert was OutKast for free.

How could I not hush that fuss

as I moved up in the world like elevators

toward da art of storytelling and performance?

That night, hip-hop sweet-talked me like

Cadillac driving Southern playas rockin fur coats and gators.

Hot and sticky like the South,

rap lyrics flowed from my mouth.

It was the start of something good

And it didn’t stop

and it won’t ever quit

from the ‘99 and 2000s

to infinite ATLien spaceships.

—

Written for National/Global Poetry Writing Month