As I learn about calibers and gauges 
in my hunter education course, 
there’s changed trajectories
& one less teacher
in Oregon.

Today,
I learned that bullets can skip 
on a glassy lake
like stones.
Break glass.
Breech glass.
That classrooms are not 
backstops. 
That, in Alaska, a 16 year old can possess a gun.
That legislation is like a choke—
it can be improved or modified.
That there are so many
moving parts in the action.

And while I know
that it’s illegal to have guns 
on school property,
today, 
kids were kept 
from recess
from making hand turkeys
in art class
from swapping Fruit Roll-Ups
at lunch.

A pin strikes. A bell rings.
School is in.
Another gun is out.

Turn on the safety, my instructor says.
Where is that? I respond. 
I’d really like to know.

L.W.