This is for your own good

This is for your own good

A parent would say as they punish or take.

A phone, a friendship, a choice. Take. Take. Take.

Amazing how concern always seems to travel one way.

It's for the best.

You'll understand when you're older.

But you don't understand when you're 9, or 13, or even 16.

Just know that someone is taking.

--

This is for your own good

They say when you hear them fighting again.

When you see her with marks on her body as she curls to hide.

"Your father is just stressed."

Apparently, stress now comes with fists.

or

"He had too much to drink tonight."

The remarkable disease. It only bruises other people.

It's for the best.

Don't test him.

Don't look at him.

Don't breathe.

But you don't understand why she stays.

Just sees her get whittled down to nothing.

--

This is for your own good!

The slogan survives another year.

Passed down like bad genetics.

Lasting longer than marriages.

--

"This is for your own good!"

He says as you hide behind the wall.

Fists match with her face over and over again.

The slick slapping of flesh to bone and the crunch.

You knew it would come down to this.

It would end for her. Still.

You watch on.

Breath caught.

But you don't understand why she did it. Why didn't she leave?

You don't understand until it happens to you.

--

When another man says the same line.

"This is for your own good!"

While his hands connect. Your eyes lock on the child watching silently.

Then a shift. A shove from you. Something cracking under layers of numbness.

No.

You reach for something. A bottle. A knife. Anything.

Handle of something sharp in hand.

No action needed. Just a flick upward and between ribs.

Quick. Effective.

"This is for your own good..."

Strange.

The phrase sounds different pointed back at him.

"Now stay down."

--

You understand now, and you will never allow that saying to reach you ever again.

That's what they all said.

Parents. Husbands. Cowards.

An amazing slogan, really.

It survives every crime.

It fits into every hand.

"This is for your own good."

The most dangerous lie.