Carrying A Knife In To The Gunfight

Carrying A Knife In To The Gunfight
Eddie Kilowatt
Full Contact Publishing
2007

His real name is Edmund Makowski, but around town he’s known as poet Eddie Kilowatt. It suits him to a tee: his persona is electric indeed, and it shines through in his slender new book of poetry, Carrying A Knife In To The Gunfight. As I write this, Kilowatt is in New York City, preparing to read at the Bowery Poetry Club. Then it’s off to sell Christmas trees in Florida for a few weeks before a December 9 show in Chicago at the infamous Green Mill.

The Green Mill – a former Al Capone hangout – is a perfect fit for Kilowatt, who is an outlaw of sorts. I’m not suggesting that he is lawless – but rather that his poetry is fearless. Blink first and you’re dead. Set squarely in the center of a prelude page are these words: Gamble. Everything.

The first of three distinct sections chronicles his rocky younger years: his father’s long illness and death, his cousin’s drug problems and, in “Something That Really Fits Her,” the possibility that his mom may need a gun for protection when a twisted Boy Scout leader is paroled from prison:

…something with a
mother of pearl handle,
something small and cute,
something that really fits her.

“A Walk Too Short” details his experiences on a trip to the boundary waters between Minnesota and Canada at age thirteen. The Boy Scout leader who “wanted me to give him pleasure the night before” is no tall tale. This is gut-wrenching writing set against the beauty of nature; you can hear the call of the loons and the pine needles ruffling against each other. It’s an intimate study in contrasts, a perfect poem in an imperfect world.

As the poetry unfolds in sections two and three, Kilowatt’s life unfolds with it. To his credit, he doesn’t bog the reader down with tedious details, nor does he follow the trail of musing overkill. The poems are brief, quick thoughts and observations about what’s going on around and inside of him. His writing is distinctly non-judgmental when it comes to thoughts about others; in fact, the women and men who confuse or amuse him are no more (or less) important than memories of his grandma making soup, or his brother holding baby rabbits. If they are, Kilowatt doesn’t let us know they are. This technique – less is more – rings true, not coy.

The cover of Gunfight is smartly designed in flaming red and the blackness of night. In the photograph (taken by Susan Scott), the author moves toward the red carrying a knife. There’s an air of bravery here: Gamble. Everything.

Kilowatt’s gamble is well worth it. VS

Carrying A Knife In To The Gunfight is available locally at Woodland Pattern Book Center at 720 E. Locust in Milwaukee, or at online bookseller lulu.com.