words:
origins of the family
Templeman studied the Tamil family structures,
with subcontinental Tigers, on rooftops, a Berkeley post Doc.
Twenty years later I read Engels "Origin of the Family"
and was reminded of a lecture from a survey.
It's okay to crib, Engels was cribbing from Morgan.
Then Lenin from Marx--theoretical critique in service of The Dialectic.
I was in the final classes Templeman taught
where he sowed the seed in my ignorant belly (full of sports and sex)
feeding me like a baby bird--predigested but nutritious:
the gens of Spinoza and Hegel.
Starting late; gossiping while he parked abstractly on the mall.
He stumbled through the lectures like a time-traveler.
After the Engels lecture I introduced myself.
He coughed into his hand (his lifestyle had overcome his body by that point).
"I will wipe my hand on the inside of my pants pocket before shaking your hand."
His hands shook. An immaculate father to many children--behind many masks--fictive kin.