Tuned Too Fine

[Intro] (soft piano, one note at a time, a faint fridge hum underneath)

[Verse 1] (tender male vocal, close to the mic, almost spoken)

I heard the weather in every room

Before I had a name

A spoon against a cup at three a.m.

A door that closed the same

You held me up like proof of something

A crown I didn't choose

But a child can feel the difference

Between being held and being seen

[Pre-Chorus] (piano thins out, breath audible)

Every footstep, every sigh

Went straight through my skin

So I made myself small

And kept the peace within

[Chorus] (soft choir joins, delicate keys)

I was never too much, the world was too loud

I was tuned to hear what no one said out loud

Don't you call it weakness, don't you call it wrong

I'm not too sensitive, I just listened all along

(slower, almost whispered)

And now I'm learning how to hear myself

[Verse 2] (left-hand piano pulses like a heartbeat)

She only wanted a sliver of your light

You handed me the sun

I loved you and I feared you

Both at once, both true

Your last page said I never asked

How you were, in the end

No one asked the girl who heard

What the silence couldn't mend

[Pre-Chorus] (a single held note, voice cracks slightly)

Every footstep, every sigh

Went straight through my skin

So I learned to say "I'm fine"

While the whole house roared within

[Chorus] (choir fuller, let the piano ring)

I was never too much, the world was too loud

I was tuned to hear what no one said out loud

Don't you call it weakness, don't you call it wrong

I'm not too sensitive, I just listened all along

(slower, almost whispered)

And now I'm learning how to hear myself

[Bridge] (piano alone, voice trembling, choir hums far away)

I flinch at the clink of a spoon

And now I know the reason why

It's not that I am breaking

It's that I was listening all my life

It's not mine, the weight of your last line

I can miss you, I can mourn you

And still set it down

[Final Chorus] (whispered, choir rising softly, then falling away)

I was never too much, the world was too loud

I was tuned, not broken, and I'm lifting up my eyes

Somebody asked me how I was

And the somebody was me

[Outro] (choir humming, piano fading, last note left unresolved)

How are you?

I'm here. I'm here.