geting results of query in plperl

I have looked at:

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/plperl-database.html

I am also comfortable querying data from tables in perl.  But I do not
quite see how to get the results of a query in plperl.  Here is what I
tried, and it is not working:

my $rv2 = spi_exec_query('SELECT current_user');
my $user = $rv2->{rows}[1]->{my_column};


I have used this query in SQL functions, so I know it works. I also ran it
in plsql.

What do I have wrong here?

-- 
"They that would give up essential liberty for temporary safety deserve
neither liberty nor safety."
                        -- Benjamin Franklin