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Olds, Sharon The Promise

	On-Line Text
Genre	Poem
Keywords	Euthanasia, Love, Ordinary Life, Sexuality
Summary	A fierce, powerful poem in which sexual and emotional intimacy between a couple reach their ultimate expression in the renewal of a promise "to kill each other", should one or the other become incapacitated. The narrator addresses her (his?) partner directly as "you"; so entwined are these two ("the halves of a single creature") that the reader isn’t certain whether the narrator is a man or a woman. The juxtaposition of the romantic restaurant setting, the deeply intimate thoughts, and the grim subject under discussion is striking: " . . . drinking Fume’ . . . we are taking on earth, we are part soil already . . . and always . . . we are also in our bed, fitted naked closely . . . ." One of the pair is afraid that the other won’t keep the promise, but "you don’t know me if you think I will not kill you."
Commentary	This is a remarkable love poem which considers one possible logical outcome of passion and devotion: euthanasia. In the interplay of sexuality, love, shared experience, and loyalty, these vows for an agreed-upon death seem completely natural.
Source	Blood, Tin, Straw
Publisher	Knopf
Edition	1999
Place Published	New York
Miscellaneous	First published in The New Yorker, June 11, 1990.
Annotated by	Aull, Felice
Date of Entry	05/11/95
Last Revised	01/09/07