DisruptionThe Malevolent Destroyer

I heard the front door slam and the stomps coming up the stairs. I knew my father was on his way. My room was at the end of a long hallway in a two-story house. There was nowhere to hide. I told the two boys to get behind my door, because in that moment it felt like the only option I had. As my father approached, my mother screaming behind him, I opened the door just enough to pretend everything was normal and said, “what’s up.” He pushed hard on the door I was holding And the boys came tearing out from behind it. They tried to escape the room Which meant running past my father Who was already throwing punches. One connected Hit the teenage boy in the nose And broke it. The boys ran through the house Out the front door Down the street Trying to get as far away from us as they could. When you are convinced your opinion is the only truth When you refuse to adjust You grab at everything around you Trying to control whatever you can. You don’t ask You assume You judge You react. And you do it without remorse. That kind of certainty can build you Or destroy you. When you turn that same force inward When you look at the places in your life that have become rigid, fixed, unmoving And you break them on purpose You stop trying to control the world around you. The destruction of the old Opens new threads you could never see before. It cracks timelines wide enough for you to walk through them Instead of fighting everything in your path. This is disruption The malevolent destroyer The part of you that breaks what refuses to bend So something new can exist in its place.