Inspired by an extract from Oscar Wilde's 'De Profundis'
Handcuffed and with bowed head, wild, humbled,
led down a dreary corridor to his fate,
a jeering crowd leering at his fallen state,
he saw a silent act of Love, and stumbled.
Months later, in a dim and gloomy cell,
pondering life's honey and its sting,
recalling the salute to a dethroned King,
a beam of light passed through his jaded shell.
Large expansive acts of kindness great,
whilst bearing with them gifts of glittering gold,
neither simple grace and empathy enfold,
nor tumbled Kings invigorate.