I promise to love you with my eyes sewn fast. That I am still becoming and while I don’t always eat breakfast, I can help you remember to take your medicine daily. To wear a white waistcoat at your party and wait to drive you home. To show you what raw looks like under your toes even before the moment has ended. I promise to put onions and garlic in everything we eat but not to oversalt anything.

I promise for your arteries to become the art in my coffers. I promise not to cash in on you. I promise for all of our promises to look like raisins in little red boxes. I promise to be chivalrous when we eat out and every time you need something from the kitchen. Everytime a long day gives you a headache. Everytime I am playing Circles (Deluxe) on repeat and it’s making you feel nauseous with heartbreak. I promise to listen to all of your podcasts, even the murder mystery ones that will likely bring me nightmares, just so we can overanalyze them together.

I promise for everything to look like us and for our bodies to glow. To make good on me. I promise to kiss you with all of the Nick Miller yearning in me. I promise to stay up and make sure you fall asleep okay and to try to ease that hinge on me that always clamps shut when I don’t know how to tell you everything that brings me grief. I promise to write your real name in my diary. To introduce you to my mother. I promise to keep you like a timelessly sweet haunting.