Johannes de Eyck Fuit Hic, by Sollace Mitchell

Arnolfini Portrait, by Johannes Van Eyck (Bruges, present day Belgium) 1434

Johannes de Eyck Fuit Hic
1434

On the sacred floor 
of the marriage
bedroom Arnolfini
stands clasped hands
beside his wife, one
lighted candle, one
snuffed, a husband
memorializing his 
departed, the vital 
flame wedded 
to the wick
of the dead,
the holy ghostly
present. 
               So is van Eyck
the eye drawn
into the mirror
entrapped I 
can see every
quick stroke
of his brush
deftly stopping by 
pieces, in planes
the movement of
the wall the flame
the wife’s trembling
upturned palm,
Arnolfini’s left eye
the brush moves the eyes
move, Arnolfini’s right
eye the dog and then
the mirror slowly free-
zes van Eyck his arm
his hand. How did
the light commune
with itself, when the brush 
stopped the mirror
moved?
               We are there
between the unbound
couple and van Eyck,
witness to loss,
must turn round to
see the painter turn
back to see the
mirror ourselves
we moved we 
stopped.

Sollace Mitchell

Sollace Mitchell is a writer and filmmaker who has published occasionally, in The Nantucket Review, The American Oxonian, and others.  He lives in Paris with his wife and two young daughters, all of whom are smarter and more charming than he is.