Memories of the Sexual Revolution

For Kiki Sammarcelli (1938–2022)

Sexual intercourse began

In nineteen sixty-three

(which was rather late for me) —

Between the end of the Chatterley ban

And the Beatles’ first LP.

—Philip Larkin, “Annus Mirabilis”

Slavery abolished (just in Dubai, I fear);

Lady Chatterley's trial's a tinker’s treat;

Hear tell of JFK's murder on Great Portland Street,

Let's face it, for me '63 was a delicious year,

Route 66's kicks subside in Bel Air

(mea maxima culpa, to be fair);

Revolution over, royalties beguile

Uprising's Thermidorean* smile,

Confused in love, still wanting dates,

Rusticated in Berkeley, quoting Yeats

("Could I but have my wish, [I'd be]

Colder and dumber and deafer than a fish"), †

I want more better stories:

O tempora! . . . O mores! ‡

* The final phase of the French Revolution after the fall of Robespierre and the radical Jacobins in Thermidor (roughly November in Fabre d'Eglantine's Jacobin calender) 1794 is known as the Réaction thermidorienne.

† William Butler Yeats, “All Things Can Tempt Me . . .” (1916).

‡ Cicero, speech to the Roman Senate against Catiline (63 BCE): O tempora! O mores! = "Oh, the times! Oh, the morals!"

Sunday, September 7, 2025