the cigarette

Now that the flushed. flesh of night has finished, And we, subdued, lie in our single bed

Submissive to rest: with all our forces diminished Except that prime urge, never quieted:

Our mutual cigarette glows to a butt-end of pleasure

And fills the silence

With little cloudy islands

Which in the room-dusk go unregistered...

Just as our commmings are felt,

Without word, without measure.

!

This inhale-exhalation of

Nicotine soothes the fresh cut of love...

This white shaft's end, this scarlet glow Banging before us, seems a universe

As compact and inclusive (and no worse) Than that we make...more real, I wonder Than the one (0 sweet exhaustion!) We so recently tore a-sunder? i'

...and I wonder

If the spent fures of our important business So lately large in action, and now pushed under By this retrospective wiseness...

I mean, how more important is the trace

Of our small conflict in this time and space, Or how much less, than the brief defeat Left by this grey ash or two

And its pungent memory of a one-time heat?

Ave

•

--Donal Norton

mattachine REVIEW

Of special interest to laymen and professional persons alike is the summary of research in sex deviation in California by Karl M. Bowman, M. D., medical superintendent at Langley.Porter Clinic, University of California Hospital, pita! San Francisco (see page 19).

"In a chapter on sexual deviation and the statutory law, 85 of the report, he states the following conclusion:

page

In summary, our laws pertaining to the control of sexual behavior, though very stringent, are relatively ineffective in channelling sexual contacts or or outlets into marital intercourse. As a result, the great majority of citizens are technically sex offenders.

The past few years have seen a large increase in the knowledge of human sexuality. Both theoretical and empirical research points to several major areas of sexual behavior where legal controls should be effective.

These concern:

(1) The prevention of the use of force and the taking of undue advantage in sexual relations;

(2) The protection of children and youths against sexua l'exploitation by adults;

(3) The control of of gross violation

violation of standards of public decency and good taste in the sexual sphere, and ' (4) The control of prostitution as it contributes to disease and to various kinds of crime and disorder in the community.

Beyond this, much research remains to be done, to provide a sound basis for determining what is desirable and undesirable sexual behavior in modern society

(From "Final Report on California Sexual Deviation Research March 1954, State of California, Department of Mental Hygiene, Walter Rapaport, M.D., Director: The Langley Porter Clinic, Karl H. Bowman, W. D., Director. Printed by the Assembly, State of Cal ifornia, Sacramento.)

29-

28