You run, you run, you run.
You hear them:
"Stop! You can't!"
You run.
Breathing gets harder and harder
to force out
with each step.
"Stop! You can't!"
You run.
Your running is now
getting slower
and slower
but it doesn't stop.
"STOP! YOU CAN'T!"
They yell stronger.
You run.
"YOU WILL HURT YOURSELF!"
You know they are right.
You know you shouldn't.
But you run.
You see the goal.
"Stop. You can't."
They don't yell anymore.
They are impressed you are doing it.
"stop—you—"
They can't even tell you.
They lose fuel
as quickly as you lose breath.
But you run.
Three steps.
Silence.
Two steps.
Silence.
One step.
You did it.
Mar 1
Mar 1, 2026 at 1:22 PM UTC
You run, you run, you run.
You hear them:
"Stop! You can't!"
You run.
Breathing gets harder and harder
to force out
with each step.
"Stop! You can't!"
You run.
Your running is now
getting slower
and slower
but it doesn't stop.
"STOP! YOU CAN'T!"
They yell stronger.
You run.
"YOU WILL HURT YOURSELF!"
You know they are right.
You know you shouldn't.
But you run.
You see the goal.
"Stop. You can't."
They don't yell anymore.
They are impressed you are doing it.
"stop—you—"
They can't even tell you.
They lose fuel
as quickly as you lose breath.
But you run.
Three steps.
Silence.
Two steps.
Silence.
One step.
You did it.
"Inat" (in Cyrillic script, инат) is a Serbo-Croatian word that represents refusing to give up just because someone tells you to. It's rebel stubborness.
-----------
Copyright: Shattentraumer, 2026. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). Original: https://hellopoetry.com/poems/5263376/inat
