Song Description
"I Built a Box" marks a turning point in Ethel’s life, seventeen, principled, caught between choice and coercion.
Raised by her grandparents on solid ground, she knows how to resist pressure, but her father’s kind of pressure is something else entirely.
So she reframed survival as a decision, a way to stay intact and eventually turn the tables on him.
The song follows her first uneasy steps into his world, where control feels like safety and survival begins to blur with complicity.
Her mind builds a box. A quiet set of defenses to keep her safe.
It will take years to open.
Lyrics
He said
Just until you're steady
And it felt like sense
Because I wanted it to
They gave me a room with no dust
An ocean that doesn't move
A kitchen with nothing burned
And knives so beautiful
You forget they're sharp
She laughs like glass breaking in reverse
Says things that float but never land
I let it pass
She's not the test
He tells me things with just a look
How hard it's been How much he's done
For Isla For Us For me
The house nods in agreement
Like it's heard the story before
I wanted to believe it for a minute
To pretend I was trading one thing
For something real
To pretend I was sharp enough to catch the line
Before I crossed it
I signed the form
I used my card
I pinned it
He said it was sorted
Bail's expensive
Isla needed help
The link said refund
The account said
Mine always had
You'd do the same
Wouldn't you?
Wouldn't you?
It was one night
Just food
Just a deal
Just a moment
But a man came looking
Not loud Not rushed
He smiled
Like a receipt
And then
He was gone
Like someone
Pressed delete
No cops No claims
Just silence
Where a person had stood
And me
Watching my own hands
As if they'd done it
Knowing they hadn't
But knowing
He knew
I'd think they had
I built the box
And walked right in
Dressed it with justifications
Hung my guilt
Where the mirror should've been
It smelled like home
So I let it stand
Buying time
But I see my mind a little blind now
I built the box
And walked right in
Dressed it with justifications
Hung my guilt
Where the mirror should've been
It smelled like home
So I let it stand
Buying time
But I see my mind a little blind now