The Arnolfini Marriage by Paul Durcan

We are the Arnolfinis.

Do not think you may invade

Our privacy because you may not.

We are standing to our portrait,

The most erotic portrait ever made,

Because we have faith in the artist

To do justice to the plurality,

Fertility, domesticity, barefootedness

Of a man and a woman saying "we":

To do justice to our bed

As being our most necessary furniture;

To do justice to our life as a reflection.

Our brains spill out upon the floor

And the terrier at our feet sniffs

The minutiae of our magnitude.

The most relaxing word in our vocabulary is "we".

Imagine being able to say "we".

Most people are in no position to say "we".

Are you? Who eat alone? Sleep alone?

And at dawn cycle to work

With an Alsatian shepherd dog tied to your handlebars?

We will pause now for the Angelus.

Here you have it:

The two halves of the coconut.