“HUCKLEBERRY” feels like a blues/folk ballad disguised as a comic monologue. This poem is most immediately performative: you can almost hear a singer delivering it with a grin that gradually becomes less funny. Its central character keeps announcing what he will become, while the woman responds with doubt. The result is simultaneously funny, pathetic, defiant, and surprisingly sad. The work is a contemporary comic-tragic ballad with a blues lyric, with elements of folk song, Southern/Americana storytelling, satirical poetry, character-driven narrative, dramatic monologue, and dark comedy.
“HUCKLEBERRY”
i told her i’m her man and she just laughed
the perfect man for her, but she just laughed
the rat race flows like a great river
and you ain’t got a raft
i told her i’m her man and she just laughed
i told her i’ll be great and i was mocked
a mark upon this world, but i was mocked
what legacy, a million ghosts
in some old cotton sock
i told her i’ll be great, but i was mocked
i told her just you watch and she just sighed
i will rise up to the top, but she just sighed
i see you crawl out momma’s basement
to that unemployment line
i told her just you watch, she just sighed
i told her i’ll be rich and she just spat
i’ll find fame and fortune, but she just spat
a poor man can be rich in jesus
and you are even far from that
i told her i’ll be rich and she just spat
i promised her the moon and she just moaned
the big old harvest moon, but she just moaned
drunk on dreams of romance
and still hung up there alone
i promised her the moon, but she just moaned
i told her i’m her man and she just laughed
i told her i’m her man and she just laughed
the rat race flows like a great river
and you ain’t got a raft
i told her i’m her man and she just laughed
Copyright © 2026 Robert Myrnyj | All rights reserved.
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