Ballistics Report [ Mike WIlson ]
There’s a lot of ‘em.
More guns than people in America.
Twenty million are assault rifles.
How do all these weapons pass the time?
Target practice.
Target practice is fun.
Pictures of Nancy Pelosi.
Empty outlines colored Black and Brown.
Training exercises.
Camo walking in circles,
Flag-pin chests, blue eyes watching omens.
Calendars ready to flip to January 6.
Avoiding the law.
Two thirds of U.S. counties
are “Second Amendment sanctuaries”
as if guns were immigrants needing churches to hide in.
Forming posses.
Waiting for the Orange Jesus Devil
to give them a star and whistle the signal
to ride into town like Sheriffs and pull the trigger.
Mike Wilson’s work has appeared in many magazines and in Mike’s book, Arranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic (Rabbit House Press). A second poetry collection (Before the Fall, Kelsay Books) and a debut novel (Food Court, Main Street Rag) are forthcoming in 2026. Mike lives in Lexington, Kentucky