Light of the Home feat. Lora Nicolas & Joanne Javien (P. K. Tiról) by PAULOPHONIC published on 2018-07-15T20:53:57Z LIGHT OF THE HOME From the song cycle On This Side of the World Words & music by Paulo K Tiról Lead vocals: Lora Nicolas & Joanne Javien Backup vocals: Joanne Javien, Joseph Legáspi & Paulo K Tiról Piano: Bob Kelly [Ilaw ng tahanan.] Light of the home: that’s the woman’s role where I’m from. [Ilaw ng tahanan.] Light of the home: that’s what I was told I’d become when my turn came to be a woman. And now that I’m a woman… Day after day, I work in a house where the mother’s never near. She’s always on a schedule, on the phone, out the door in the rush of her busy career, while I’m pushing a stroller, and helping with homework, and cradling her kids when they cry. She’s got better things to do -- and that’s why I’m the light [ilaw] of the home in her place [ilaw ng tahanan], day and night [ilaw], by some heavenly grace [ilaw ng tahanan]. I’m treated real well and the pay’s more than fine so I’m lighting her home -- instead of mine. Day after day, I care for a husband whose wife is never there. She’s always at the gym, off to shop, out to brunch, having drinks with some friend somewhere, while I tend to the bedpan, the diet, the meds, and the heart of a man set to die. She’s not that kind of woman -- and so I am the light [ilaw] of the home in her place [ilaw ng tahanan], paid to fight [ilaw] for the man she can’t face [ilaw ng tahanan]. I’ve mastered the role and I know every line, but as I’m lighting her home, who’s lighting mine? Who’s lighting mine? Isn’t it a blessing how we’re needed by these women? That we can make a living being what we’re meant to be? Not when you’re suppressing how it hurts to see these women. If my children and my husband were steps away from me, could I choose to not be a mother? Could I choose to not be a wife? Well, couldn’t you choose to not live a life so far away? \Was it ever a choice to stay? [You’re the light of your home even now, burning bright the only way you know how. You’re certain they see you’d no choice but to go, and you’re sure there’s a way to be light in your own home someday… At least, you tell yourself so.] Day after day, I dream of a house where the mother where the wife is never there. July 15, 2018 Genre Musical Theatre