How we cite our quotes: (Poem Title, Stanza)
Quote #4
Two days, two nights, no sleep, no food, come down off the monster, you crash real hard. (Until You Crash.1-2)
Maybe you've never thought about it before, but drugs are really hard on your body. It's our guess that if you deliberately chose not to sleep or eat for two days, you'd be pretty freaking miserable.
Quote #5
You know how you stand and stand and stand in line for the most gigantic incredible roller coaster you've ever dared attempt […] Cresting the top, time moves into overtime as you wait for that scant hesitation just before you drop, knowing you can't turn back. You know how you feel at that instant? Well, that's exactly how it feels when you shake hands with the monster. (Just Before the Drop.1-5)
We'd like to tweak Kristina's roller coaster metaphor just a bit. Shaking hands with the monster is like getting on the roller coaster without a safety harness and completely destroying your mind in the process.
Quote #6
Burned out, adrift on a sea of uncertain synapses, a place where your eyes refuse to refocus and your brain refuses to function.
[…]
Everything shut down, cerebral ghost town. I fell into deep sleep. Deep, dream-free sleep. (Used Up.1, 3)
There's some seriously poetic language here—the phrase "cerebral ghost town" paints the burned-out mind of someone on drugs as something haunted and abandoned. Even if readers haven't experienced addiction, the tone of this passage helps us understand the emotional state of someone who has.