Oscar Wilde Gets Out

Freedom for the scapegoat leaving Reading Jail

Rheumy eyes just pierced his heart like crucifixion nails

Shaking fists and razors gleamed, you never stood a chance

When the ink ran red on Fleet Street

You turned your eyes to France

Humbled far from Dublin, chased across the waves

Your biting wit still sharp enough

To slice through every page

Destitute and beaten by the system of the crown

The bitter pill you swallowed

Tasted sweeter going down

And looking back on the great indifference

Looking back at the limestone wall

Thinking how beauty deceives you

Knowing how love fools us all

A golden boy in velveteen landed in New York

The past was so seductive

When they paid to hear you talk

Baccarat and champagne flutes

Tobacco from Virginia

Long before the lords and law

Branded Oscar Wilde a sinner

And looking back on the cold bleak winter

Looking back on those long dark days

Felt like the head of John the Baptist

In the arms of Salome

Don't turn around it's a white gull screaming

Don't cry out loud you never know who's listening

You've seen it all the exiled Unforgiven

From the stately homes of England to her prisons

And looking back at the hardened lifers

Looking back on the wretched poor

Thinking maybe they were my saviors

Strange to think I'll miss them all

Strange to think I'll miss them all

And looking back on the great indifference

Looking back at the limestone wall

Thinking how beauty deceives you

Knowing how love fools us all