The more you consider your wants as they overshadow your needs, the easier it becomes to ignore your conscience. Once you've become a regular patron of lying to yourself, your trust can be misplaced in the most dangerous trenches. In those deep abysses, you can find the monster under your bed and let it tear you apart with its iron fist solely because it was also donning velvet gloves. Whether that monster is really a monster, another person, or actually yourself is different for everyone, but we can all fall victim to manipulating ourselves to feel pain in exchange to get closer to a petty desire. Being a cruel optimist to catch your dreams is a little familiar to everyone, and though this collection of poetry is founded on my personal experiences of nightmares I've force-fed myself, the bigger picture follows a teenage boy tossing and turning over what he really thinks about love, loss, nostalgia, independence, and conformity. Now, his world is finally yours.