Genre: Confessional

REVERENDMOTHERFORKLIFT

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“ReverendMotherForklift” reads as a contemporary experimental poem that combines surrealism, religious grotesque, confessional poetry, and dark/gothic imagery. Its form and diction are deliberately fractured, producing something closer to a fever dream, incantation, or liturgical curse than a conventional narrative poem. The poem appears to dramatize the wrestling of religion, inheritance, guilt, motherhood, abandonment, and spiritual contamination. Rather than presenting a straightforward story, it builds an atmosphere of psychological and theological disorientation through rapid collisions of words and images. It is part of the narration character’s backstory in the “An Empty Cup of Doom” novella.

“REVERENDMOTHERFORKLIFT”

roman candle water torture
irish queer bait spirit quest
protestation confirmation
beleaguered berated blessed
another yet drew me to this
blasphemy beset my best
unable precana fable
scattered sunset in the west

whore of whores and house of harlots
hand grenades and heretics
ministry of motherfucking
sons of bitches witches tits
bible through a mirror blindly
make what of you want of it
mammon holy war and pant suits
that which soothes the widow’s wish

in the hills, a midnight altar
tea leaves, runes, and amulets
she laid the baby on the stone
and shriveled back in deep regret
a mother’s tears, a widows peak
fatherless untethered mess
the atom hearted prophetess
grants my weary soul no rest

so count the cost, inheritance
left to my designs, bereft
unclean bats feast on my prayers
demons dance and repossess
far off into the darkness blind
drifting windless unto death
and in the ditches and the bogs
glowing eyes that steal my breath

Copyright © 2026 Robert Myrnyj | All rights reserved.
The poems and literary works presented here are original creations by the author.
Unauthorized copying, reproduction, distribution, modification, or public display of this
content is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

SEEMS SO MUCH

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“SEEMS SO MUCH” is a melancholic, spiritually searching free verse poem that blends confessional vulnerability with understated hope. The tone moves between self-loathing, loneliness, and quiet yearning for grace, while the voice feels deeply human and unguarded, speaking with plainspoken sincerity rather than theatrical flourish. One of the poem’s strongest qualities is its use of humble, accessible language to explore themes of worthlessness, salvation, and emotional rescue. The repeated refrain gives the poem a meditative rhythm and reinforces the speaker’s uncertainty about faith, heroism, and their own value. Particularly effective is the contrast between pop-cultural imagery and religious symbolism, which broadens the poem’s emotional reach and suggests a universal longing for deliverance from despair. Written for the “A Shattered Cup of Doom” novella, this poem appears in the “Second Shards of Broken Glass” chapbook.

“SEEMS SO MUCH”

i am not some ordinary joe
something less than that
i know
and who would ever stoop so low
who would ever stoop so low

now i do not read
them comic books
but it seems so much
to be
that god has made
the superheroes
for the helpless zeroes here
like me

this is not some tent on mission row
somewhere less than that
i know
it takes a saint to call this tomb
to drag me from this dungeon womb

now i do not read
them holy books
but it seems so much
to be
that god has sent
his better angels
to the lonely strangers here
like me

just when i thought that
i’d been left here to die
just one in a million
from the highway driving by
a knock on my door
a knock on my door

now i do not read
them holy books
but it seems
so much
to be

Copyright © 2026 Robert Myrnyj | All rights reserved.
The poems and literary works presented here are original creations by the author.
Unauthorized copying, reproduction, distribution, modification, or public display of this
content is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

THUNDERSTRUCKEN

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“THUNDERSTRUCKEN” is a raw, emotionally charged confessional poem that blends self-deprecating humor, romantic collapse, and storm imagery into a voice-driven modern lament. The tone shifts fluidly between frantic regret, bitterness, vulnerability, and aching loneliness, creating the sense of a speaker unraveling in real time after a failed emotional confession or fractured relationship. One of the poem’s greatest strengths is its highly distinctive voice: conversational, profane, wounded, and darkly funny all at once. The imagery reveals both theatricality and genuine emotional exposure, giving the speaker an almost tragicomic dimension. The ending is especially strong, closing on quiet cinematic loneliness, transforming personal humiliation into a memorable tableau of abandonment and yearning. As a newly written poem for the “A Shattered Cup of Doom” novella, it has not yet been assigned to a chapbook.

“THUNDERSTRUCKEN”

lookit there,
it’s hope
i got it
strung up on a rope
i am a dope
a smitten fool
a thunderstrucken
fuckin’ ghoul
why not just let
well-enough alone
i had to stand up
on a wooden box and
commit my heart-felt
words to stone
i saw her frown
i’m such a clown
i let us down
i let us down
the thunder’s truckin’
through the skies
with teardrops
of a zillion eyes
that wash off
all uncertainty
romantic
hopeless clumsy
prematurity
what in hell’s
become of me
pain too great
time too long
now something sweet
and right and strong
has soured to weak
and woefully wrong
and i wait alone
in the light of the street
the moth it flutters
the cricket sings
by a public phone
that never rings

Copyright © 2026 Robert Myrnyj | All rights reserved.
The poems and literary works presented here are original creations by the author.
Unauthorized copying, reproduction, distribution, modification, or public display of this
content is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

THERE

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“THERE” is a brief piece of confessional free verse that leans into psychological and existential poetry, using sparse language to convey emotional isolation and fractured identity. The tone is bleak, intimate, and quietly despairing, while the voice feels vulnerable yet emotionally restrained, as though the speaker can only approach their pain indirectly through metaphor. The poem’s greatest strength is its compression: in just a few lines, it establishes a powerful contrast between decay and emotional defense. Written for the “A Shattered Cup of Doom” novella, “Tome” appears in the “Second Shards of Broken Glass” chapbook.

“THERE”

i don’t know
my rotting flesh
from the armor
that i bear
my heart is locked
in a black box
and i don’t have
the key to there

Copyright © 2026 Robert Myrnyj | All rights reserved.
The poems and literary works presented here are original creations by the author.
Unauthorized copying, reproduction, distribution, modification, or public display of this
content is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

HELL AND EGYPT (REPRISE)

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This poem, the continuation and stark follow-up to the longer “Hell and Egypt”, is likewise a lyric narrative within the gothic and confessional genres, having strong elements of ballad and theological complaint. Its central theme is the trafficking and abandonment of a child by a mother who herself had been sent off as a baby. It speaks subtly to the notion of generational curse under the horrible torrent of grave misfortune. Written for the “A Shattered Cup of Doom” novella, this poem appears in the “Second Shards of Broken Glass” chapbook.

“HELL AND EGYPT (REPRISE)”

she was sworn to not reveal
that she had been the devil’s whore
and so her wrath and agony
is shade upon the boy she bore

and so the shadow falls on him
she left him lying there alone
who allowed this to occur
she left her baby on the stone

she sold him off to hell and egypt
her running blood, her like, her kind
like some cold slab of bovine carcass
and she rode off, left him behind

she sold him off to hell and egypt

Copyright © 2026 Robert Myrnyj | All rights reserved.
The poems and literary works presented here are original creations by the author.
Unauthorized copying, reproduction, distribution, modification, or public display of this
content is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

HELL AND EGYPT

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This poem is a lyric narrative within the gothic and confessional genres, with strong elements of ballad and theological complaint. Its central theme is the trafficking and abandonment of a woman, the subsequent shattering of her faith, and her defiant but self-destructive turn toward forbidden love. The poem also explores inherited trauma and the seemingly unanswerable question of why darkness befalls the innocent. The voice is a third-person omniscient narrator who shifts between anguished witness, theological interrogation, and tragic chronicler of the woman’s internal collapse. Structurally, the poem unfolds across eight stanzas of irregular length, mixing quatrains and couplets. Repetition of key phrases creates a refrain-like meditation on desire, suffering, and divine silence. The title phrase suggests both a literal place of exile and a biblical resonance, with Egypt as the land of bondage and hell as ultimate abandonment. The woman’s rejection of God and her choice to lie beside “a priestess of deceit” frames her rebellion as both liberation and damnation, symbolized by quicksand imagery. Written for the “A Shattered Cup of Doom” novella, this poem appears in the “Second Shards of Broken Glass” chapbook.

“HELL AND EGYPT”

they sold her off to hell and egypt
her running blood, her like, her kind
like some cold slab of bovine carcass
and they rode off, left her behind

who set her naked on the stone
and who allowed this to occur
who left her lying there alone
why did this shadow fall on her

and what, dear lord, in darkness breeds
the heart it wants and the heart it needs

she swore to hell and heaven then,
with hand on heart, forevermore
that this would never be as such
no not again, no never more

and so forwent, and then she severed
whatsoever ties and binds
even unto god most high
and then, again, and for all time

for he allowed this woe to be
who tames the storms and calms the seas
they say he sees our darkest thoughts
and hears our cries, our prayers, our pleas

but she chose not their ancient one
in vain, she deemed him obsolete
and chose instead to lie in bed
beside a priestess of deceit

but the moonlight whispers marking time
the quicksand of her very sin
and though the kicking of her legs
she drifts and sinks much deeper in

she was sworn to not reveal
that she had been the devil’s whore
and so her wrath and agony
is shade upon the boy she bore

the heart it wants and the heart it needs
but what, dear lord, does darkness breed

Copyright © 2026 Robert Myrnyj | All rights reserved.
The poems and literary works presented here are original creations by the author.
Unauthorized copying, reproduction, distribution, modification, or public display of this
content is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

CHURCH TO ME

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“Church To Me” is a lyric poem with strong elements of spiritual skepticism and romantic devotion, blending confessional and secular hymn traditions. Its central theme is the replacement of institutional religion with a beloved person as the locus of transcendence, grace, and moral reckoning, without requiring faith in God, heaven, scripture, or organized worship. The voice is a first-person speaker who is unapologetically flawed, agnostic, and self-deprecating, yet experiences the beloved as a sacred presence. Structurally, the poem uses a repeated refrain across five quatrains, each rejecting a traditional religious element before affirming that the woman’s supernatural quality provokes the same awe, sanctuary, and moral gravity as church. The language is plain, rhythmically steady, and undercut by earthy imagery that grounds the spiritual claim in bodily, lived experience. Written for the “A Shattered Cup of Doom” novella, this poem appears in the “Second Shards of Broken Glass” chapbook.

“CHURCH TO ME”

i don’t pretend to be an angel
i’ve done my share of evil deeds
but something in her, supernatural
seems so much like church to me

i don’t intend to go to heaven
just roll my carcass to the street
but something in the air about her
seems so much like church to me

i don’t depend upon some jesus
cannot believe what i can’t see
but something in her eyes, like lightning
seems so much like church to me

i don’t attend saint paul’s on sundays
i naturally just oversleep
but somehow she’s my sanctuary
seems so much like church to me

i can’t defend the holy bible
i cannot reckon what it means
but something singing in her whisper
somehow seems like church to me

Copyright © 2026 Robert Myrnyj | All rights reserved.
The poems and literary works presented here are original creations by the author.
Unauthorized copying, reproduction, distribution, modification, or public display of this
content is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

TIME AND TIME AGAIN

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This poem is a lyric poem, with strong elements of confessional and gothic poetry. Its central theme is the cyclical nature of suffering and redemption—specifically, the journey from suicidal despair and imprisonment toward spiritual rescue through love. The voice is a first-person speaker, who oscillates between raw anguish and hard-won salvation. Structurally, the poem uses stark rhyme, repetition, and fragmented imagery to mimic obsessive thought and emotional relapse. A new work, “Time And Time Again” is not yet assigned to a chapbook.

“TIME AND TIME AGAIN”

the darkest night of all my days
mousetrap house rat in a maze
some angel shoulder old crow sings
one-eye jack go suicide king

the knight is still without the moon
lately death can’t come too soon
an ounce of cure, a pound of rock
beat the dead horse, beat the clock

marking time and time again
i’m living hell and back again
again and again
and again
again

the prison gate reverberates
scared straight date where fate awaits
lightning striking, hallowed hall
shadow creeping up the wall

she sat beside me on death row
her eyes a blue electric glow
my heart plugged into supercharge
the second hand remains at large

travel time and time again
i’m back from living hell again
again and again
and again
again

she stood to rise and took my arm
and led my spirit clear of harm
due time done did doing time
a simple love, a simple rhyme

energized amazed enthralled
her picture nailed onto the wall
the undeath of the valley stir
every time i think of her

Copyright © 2026 Robert Myrnyj | All rights reserved.
The poems and literary works presented here are original creations by the author.
Unauthorized copying, reproduction, distribution, modification, or public display of this
content is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

FOR GOD AND FOR DEVIL

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“For God and For Devil” is a narrative poem with a dash of Americana noir and a hint of Gothic undertone. It is, perhaps, an inverse of Romantic poetry, but its conceptual base is the question of propriety in the face of wickedness expressed in something of a confessional spirit. As such, the work provokes existential contemplation and draws elements of morality into the scope. “For God and For Devil” is a snapshot in the “A Shattered Cup of Doom” realm, and released as part of the “Second Shards of Broken Glass” chapbook.

“FOR GOD AND FOR DEVIL”

jukebox booth sunrise diner
we are two of a kind
detectives and suspects alike

same damned light, same damned crime
snarling wolves, bone to grind
and it feels like the end of the line

there once was a girl
who showed up at midnight
every night, many months, her and me

and there once was another,
taken in by his mother
as daughter, he cried, family

so i told him the truth
and i showed him the proof
his lip quivered and a tear filled his eye

such things cannot be
if our eyes cannot see
so he lies, to himself, so he lies

and i, so compelled
to breaking her spell
i laid it out, science and art

i did her so wrong and
it serves her so right
i’m a stake driven into her heart

but what kind of fool
must believe in his mind
the tales of a whore to survive

he is weak, worn, and tired
yet as fool and as liar
that man is far greater than i

so i leave him for midnight
alone in the moonlight
blood in my teeth and thorns in my hide

what becomes of a man
when you’ve done all you can
is for god
and for devil
to decide

Copyright © 2026 Robert Myrnyj | All rights reserved.
The poems and literary works presented here are original creations by the author.
Unauthorized copying, reproduction, distribution, modification, or public display of this
content is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

EMPTY CHAIR

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Originally conceived of in 1995, “Empty Chair” is a reduced and revised version of an unreleased work called “Silhouette”. The poem serves the “A Shattered Cup of Doom” novella as a piece of the back story of the narration character, a great woe on one man’s failure to lift off and gain traction into adulthood. “Empty Chair” is a Dark Confessional poem that occupies deep depression both in word and in structure. Trigger Warning: This poem whispers of soliloquy, therefore, the reader should proceed with caution.

“EMPTY CHAIR”

in a lonely room
in an empty chair
alone in the silence
i sit there and stare

it’s all the same day after day
month upon month
since we’d last parted ways
from the brightest of hopes
to the darkest of days

i woke up this morning
i wanted to die

in a lonely room
in an empty chair
alone in the silence
i sit there and stare

alone in the silence

it’s all the same mold and decay
time after time
the damn nightmare rewinds
an american dream that
the world left behind

i woke up this morning
i woke up this morning
i wanted to die

in a lonely room
in an empty chair
alone in the silence
i sit there and stare

alone in the silence
alone in the silence

it’s all the same white picket brain
wave upon wave of
infectious rejection
suspension detention
the dungeon of death

i woke up this morning
i woke up this morning
i woke up this morning
i wanted to die

in a lonely room
in an empty chair
alone in the silence
i sit there and stare

alone in the silence
alone in the silence
alone in the silence

it’s all the same young and insane
over and over, will this ever end
from my mother’s basement
to be born again

i woke up this morning
i woke up this morning
i woke up this morning
i woke up this morning
i wanted to die

Copyright © 2026 Robert Myrnyj | All rights reserved.
The poems and literary works presented here are original creations by the author.
Unauthorized copying, reproduction, distribution, modification, or public display of this
content is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.