🍬 Behind the Stanza: Creating “Bittersweet” in Poems for Breakfast

Sparks, sketches, and surprises that shaped the Poems for Breakfast book series.

Some people are natural skeptics. They approach new things with arms crossed and expectations low.

But sometimes those same people surprise themselves.
That’s the heart of “Bittersweet.”

BITTERSWEET

Oh, lookie, there’s a bunch
Of silly chocolates no one wants—
The yucky ones with cream,
Or the coconut with nuts.

Or the pink ones with white lines.
Why ever pink with lines?
How strange we eat such things
As pink squares with thin white strings.

Or the round and flat squished cracker
With dark chocolate as a backer
That gets left there for a while,
All stale and broken in a pile.

Or the ones rolled in a round,
With all those shavings sticking out.
Strange candies, oh so sticky,
And they look so super icky.

I won’t like it, but I’ll try,
And I’ll taste it with a sigh.
Biting one, I know I’ll hate.
You know, I could suffocate.

Like I thought... it’s just okay,
But there’s flavor, I must say.
It’s not as bad as I thought up—
Tastes like candied buttercup.

Can I try just one more, please?
I only want it just to see.
Thank you. Yes, it’s not as bad
As some other ones I’ve had.

Just one more, and then I’ll stop.
I’ll take this bagful to my Pop.
Unless, of course, I eat them first—
Oh, these sweets are just the worst!

The Great Candy Conversion

“Bittersweet” captures that moment when we're dead set against something but can’t help changing our minds. It’s pure internal monologue, complete with all the self-justification and rationalization we do when reality doesn't match our expectations.

Our narrator stands firm against those “silly chocolates no one wants” and those mysteriously pink squares with white lines. But seriously, why are some candies pink with lines?

If you’ve ever faced a mixed chocolate box, then you know this feeling. You never knew what you’d get, and eyed them suspiciously before taking that first tentative bite.

The language shifts as the experience unfolds. We start with “yucky” and “icky” but end up with “candied buttercup.” The narrator's vocabulary transforms along with their taste buds.

The Art Part

Creating the illustration was an adventure in sweet memory excavation. I had just started to teach myself to draw for the book, so I looked up inspiration and dug through memories of every confection I’d ever seen in well adorned boxes.

I threw in some ants wandering around the scene. They’re escapees from another poem called “Ant Farm.”

The Best Kind of Wrong

When our narrator declares “Oh, these sweets are just the worst!” right after eating their way through the selection, it becomes about more than candy. It's about pride, changing our minds, and the funny ways we rationalize when reality doesn’t match our expectations.

In a world that increasingly demands we pick sides, there’s something refreshing about a character who can be completely wrong and completely human. “Bittersweet” reminds us that some of the best discoveries happen when we try something we’re convinced we won’t like.

What's your “bittersweet” moment? That time you were absolutely certain you’d hate something but ended up going back for more. Or maybe there’s a candy in those mixed chocolate boxes that you always avoid but secretly wonder about.

I’ll bet it’s the pink ones with white lines.

The Poems for Breakfast series is an illustrated collection of whimsical children’s poem books that make mealtime an adventure.

Available on Amazon in hardcover and paperback. Join the adventure at poemsforbreakfast.com.