BUILT TOO SMALL Altovskiy

I learned to sand the edges off before I handed you the truth
Kept the thunder in my throat and made restraint look bulletproof

Every boundary got translated into something more polite
I could make a room feel peaceful while disappearing in plain sight

You liked me best in lower volume, easy smile, elastic spine
Always bending at the doorway like the doorway must be right

I thought making myself smaller meant I knew how love should work

Turns out fitting every corner
Only taught me where it hurt

I spent years folding corners
So I'd fit inside the frame

Now you look at me like growing
Is another word for blame

Then I heard my own voice
Without trimming it to size

And for once it didn't sound like trouble

It sounded
Like mine

You built it too small

I kept cutting myself down
Just to fit inside your walls

You built it too small

Every time I stood up straight
You called it changing, called it wrong

If I'm louder now, so be it
I was quiet for too long

I was never too much

You just built it
Too small

I can spot the old reflex now — apology before the ask
That little smile I put on every sentence like a mask

Still catch myself reducing every feeling to a joke
Then leave the punchline hanging where I used to hide the smoke

I don't need to wreck the building just to prove I found the door
Don't need to make you lesser just because I'm becoming more

You can keep the measurements you took when I was half this loud

Growth isn't betrayal
Just because it doesn't make you proud

Sometimes I feel the old shape
Pulling at me when I move

But familiar doesn't mean forever

And fitting
Isn't proof

You built it too small

I won't cut myself back down
Just to fit inside your walls

You built it too small

Now when I stand up straight
I don't care if you call it wrong

If I'm louder now, I mean it
I was silent for too long

I was never too much

You just built it
Too small

Funny

The room didn't change

I did

You wanted easy
I wanted honest

Those were never quite the same

Not the same

And I don't need to hate you
To stop playing that old game

You built it too small

No more folding at the edges
No more wondering if I fit

If the room can't hold
The person I've become

That's not mine
To fix

If I'm louder now, let me be loud
If I'm different, let it show

I was never too much

I just finally
Let myself grow

You built it too small

I was never too much

You just built it
Too small