Light of the Home feat. Lora Nicolas & Joanne Javien (P. K. Tiról) by PAULOPHONIC

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