SUCCEED (Poem)

SUCCEED

By Farah Lawal Harris, 2025

I need I need I need I need

discipline and visioning

in order to succeed.

When the chips are thin

I’m hustlin’ in order to succeed.

I need purpose, healing, grit and strength in order to succeed.

I read mysteries, ancestral histories in order to succeed.

I was made for this, they paid for this, my exquisite lineage,

near-Presidents, Anglican bishop went from slave to abolitionist.

I don’t hesitate, I flow create

then share it with the world.

This that first-gen Naija girl.

This that

I need I need I need I need

honesty, vulnerability

in order to succeed.

I need beauty sleep and vitamin D

in order to succeed.

I need God, I need that solid rock

in order to succeed.

I work hard but know when to stop

in order to succeed.

I just manifest and manifest, like alchemists I turn.

Yes that’s her again, with lead again, she cook it till it burn.

You see smoke and smell that gas stove

then the next thing you see gold.

This my destiny unfold.

This that

I need I need I need I need

To tell you something:

to be rich without love

means you possess nothing.

Fools will play with you

till you call their bluffing.

When you leave this earth

you take zip-zero nothing.

But while you’re here

it’s best to accomplish something.

I desperately need

to accomplish something,

for all this pain to be not for nothing.

—

Written for National Poetry Writing Month #napowrimo