James F. "Jim" Moore

Passing a Truck Full of Chickens at Night on Highway Eighty

What struck me at first
was their panic.
Some were pulled by the wind from moving
to the ends of the stacked cages,
some had their heads blown through the bars –

and could not get them
in again.
Some hung there like that — dead –
their own feathers blowing, clotting

in their faces. Then
I saw the one that made me slow some –
I lingered there beside her for five miles.

She had pushed her head
through the space
between the bars – to get a better view.
She had the look of a dog in the back

of a pickup, that eager
look of a dog
who knows she’s being taken along.
She craned her neck.

She looked around, watched
me, then
strained to see over the car – strained
to see what happened beyond.

That is the chicken
I want to be.

“Passing a Truck
Full of Chickens at Night on Highway Eighty” by Jane Mead from her book
The Lord and the General Din of the World published by Sarabande Books.

I wrote a letter of response to the William Greider piece..

From: Judith Long
Date: Fri Feb 20, 2004  11:22:11  AM US/Eastern
To:  ” title=”mailto:jmoore@cyber.law.harvard.edu
“>jmoore at cyber.law.harvard.edu

Name:    James F. Moore
Postal:  Baker House, Harvard Law School
         Cambridge, MA 02138
————————————————————————

Message:

   This is the commentary that gets it right. I was the director of the
   Internet group at the Dean Campaign for the final two and half
   months, and a volunteer for several months before. I am also a senior
   fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.

   Howard is Howard. He is fresh, courageous, and enjoys identifying
   problems and working to solve them. The messier the problems, the
   better. Child sexual abuse, child neglect, AIDS, the war in Iraq,
   the rot of the Democratic Party, and the dominance of big media. He
   had the boldness to take on party leaders. And he had the sense of
   truth to say to Wolf Blitzer, on camera, that Wolf is in the
   entertainment business.

   People loved Howard when they heard him in person. They loved him
   because he spoke of their concerns, and because he obviously cared
   about them and the future of the country. They loved his truth
   telling, his–to coin a phrase–compassionate indignation.

   And Howard really does believe that the only way to improve the
   country is to engage the people. Our challenges are not technical.
   Our real problems–racism, economy, environment, health, two
   Americas, special interests and corruption of government–require
   citizens to find new ways to come together and shape the future.

   This was just too radical for the big boys.

   Thanks for a wonderful piece. Your appreciation is valued at a moment
   when many of us who have been in the campaign are feeling pretty
   beaten down. By the way, I was alerted to your column because a
   friend circulated it on the “webteam” internal list at Dean for
   America. Her single line comment: Amen.

   Thanks,

   Jim Moore