BY: R. S. Stewart

I fell forward for it
but backward is where I landed.
The logic of location amused me
more than anything else had

so I tried twice more
to move myself forward without
a fall following. Was it low luck
or bad balance that kept my doubt

in rebound? Onward is how I went, wishing
I had carried a cushion
instead of the flimsy, flat hope of reason.

R. S. Stewart lives in his native western Oregon. Formerly he taught English at Christopher Newport College (now University) of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, where he also founded the college theater, directing ten plays during the first two seasons. Three of his own plays have received staged readings at Oregon regional theaters. His poetry has been published in many journals in the U. S. and Europe, among them San Jose Studies; Blue Unicorn; Able Muse; The Raintown Review; Canary; Poetry Salzburg Review; 2 Bridges Review; The Same; Serving House Journal; Avatar Review; The Journal; Pif Magazine; Ink, Sweat & Tears; and Brittle Star.