Song of a Tear-Gassed Man by Cirilo Bautista

I love it! I love it!
This tear gas sanctifies my corrupted soul.
Oh! The divine odor of it, the excitement
better than demos or rock and roll.

Get a load of it, brother, while it's free,
You may never get another chance;
this is the right stuff, the real Mccoy,
pure, imported chemicals from France.
We may not have money in the bank,
no food on the table, no seat on the Love bus,
but we have secret marshals and policemen
and most of all, we have a lot if tear gas.

Get a load of it, brother, while it's free
 You may never get another chance;

this is the right stuff, the real Mccoy,
pure, imported chemicals from France.

We may not have houses and running water.
the taxmen may be running after us,
but we have floods, garbage, Amendment 6
and most of all, we have a lot of tear gas.

Get a load of it, brother, while it's free
 You may never get another chance;
this is the right stuff, the real Mccoy,
pure, imported chemicals from France.

Don't save your tears, brother, they are meant
to be shed, you cannot turn them into cash,
but if you join me in this martial festival
you'll get a taste of refreshing tear gas.

Get a load of it, brother, while it's free
 You may never get another chance;
this is the right stuff, the real Mccoy,
pure, imported chemicals from France.

My analysis:

          Cirilio Bautista was born in Manila, July 9, 1941 and has passed away on May 6, 2018. He is known as a poet, critic, writer of non-fiction and had contributed a great deal to Philippine literature. He wrote the 'Song of a Tear-Gassed Man', which has been prominent in several schools through speech choirs.

          Based on the text as a whole, this is the author's experience during a rally against the Martial Law. By his diction and way of writing, I had gotten the impression that he was frenzied or ecstatic even if he has been tear-gassed. He expressed how he has loved it— the odor and excitement of tear gas. Tear gas is indeed painful and destructive but no one in their right mind would find that appealing, but he must have expressed it this way for a reason. In the second stanza, he gave details about 'we', a group of people who are ill-fated and lives in poverty. Mentions of 'secret marshals' and 'policemen', I had assumed they were the ones who used the tear gas; The author and the people were against the government— the people who are favored with blessings. When he had mentioned about chances, in the third stanza, it was evident that they were gambling for something— something worth it, even if they were going through such pain. In the fifth stanza, he had written about the distress they had gone through. He also explicitly mentioned 'Amendment 6', which is directly relevant to the Martial Law. It is clearer now that he has been describing the issues and hardships, and specifically a rally during the events when the Martial Law was still in effect. In the seventh stanza, he seemed to be encouraging people to stand up for themselves and to join him in the rally to fight for freedom. 

          Even if the government had tried to drive the people away with tear gas, the people stood strong. The author was thrilled despite being abused and this was because he knew this was a chance that he would take to go against the cruel judgment of the government as he was determined to fight for himself and the people's freedom.