Poetry for Richard Haas' Untitled I and II

Commission (1992)

By Neal Bowers

Something to trick the eye

at the end of the hallway

or bright for a corner, maybe

a shade between tangerine and peach;

anything blue for an out-of-the-way place

or a tactile centerpiece of polished stone

to make everyone’s hand flutter

with a need to land there.

Say something to the body

which has forgotten to listen

and hear daily the gray

droning of the brain;

interrupt the brain’s numb monotone

with the lonely ache of a lost dialogue.

Shout from the tops of buildings;

argue forever in the quiet courtyards;

whisper subliminal code from hooks

and pedestals in dusty rooms

in the true language.