He’d been driving alone
since Gatlinburg, radio off
window open so he could
just hear the air, the rain,
as it was. The hiss of it 
keeping his lids from slipping back.

Some days grace comes, he thought.
Some days you pull up to the house
the engine running and you watch
the car door slam without shuttering. 

Sure, he hadn’t eaten breakfast. 
Hadn’t stopped for coffee 
since Paducah. The wipers 
moved in a whimper. The rain
slid to the sides of them
and away leaving the curved arch 
over his sight, cut and recut 
with the slow wave of blade.

The sun was expanding somewhere
and he thought it all true, that “we have 
all been in rooms we could not die in.”
He would remember the wallpaper,
a lamp, the way the faucet dripped
when the hot was not turned hard.

To feel the flood that has left.
See its hands and wish it back.
Drink whiskey. Park and drink.
Put the keys in the glove box.
There are other days for grace

Gatlinburg

Inspired by true events and set in Aurora, Illinois in the early 1980’s, “The Death of Aliza Willett” is a Midwestern Gothic folk opera that follows high school seniors Aliza (the victim), William (the failed protector), Benjamin (the useless boyfriend), and Sarah (the best friend) as they are pulled into the fight between heaven and hell, angels and demons… 

Locations referenced:
Angel of Linden Avenue Maple tree – 435 Linden Avenue Aurora, IL 60505
Our Lady of Good Council – 620 Fifth St, Aurora, IL 60505
Rusty’s Grocery Store – 801 Jackson St Aurora, IL 60505
Buy Rite – 443 S 4th St, Aurora, IL 60505
Bardwell School – 550 S Lincoln Ave, Aurora, IL 60505
Philips Park – 1000 Ray Moses Dr, Aurora, IL 60505
Mt Olivet – 278 Ashland Avenue Aurora, Illinois 60505
Hurds Island – North Avenue in the Fox River Aurora, Illinois


Our Lady of Good Counsel (Aliza)

Buy-Rite Parking Lot (William)

Of Pearls and Daffodils (the Angel)

Angel with Black Wings (Sarah)

Searchlights in the Frost (William)

Bardwell School (Aliza)

Oh, Archangel Michael (Aliza)

Moving to Chicago (Benjamin)

Vespers (Father John)

Mount Olivet (Aliza)

This Winter Light (Sarah)

The Angel of Linden Avenue (William)

Bleib Bei Mir

The Willow Lands of Hurds Island (Everitt)

Work of Singer/Songwriter Elowen Gaines.

Formed in the shadows of a Midwestern University in the mid nineties, the Nabokov Project is the ongoing work of singer-songwriter mw gargo. Previous incarnations have included the membership of Dave Pollock (spoken-word vocals), Ted Leslie (percussion), Thea Morton (cello, guitar, and keys), and mw gargo (vocals, guitar, bass, violin, computer, and keys). Many of the early songs on/in these pages were part of former collaborations. With the death of Ted Leslie, the "band" ceased and continues on today as the alt, lo-fi project work written & recorded by mw gargo.

the Nabokov Project

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