Show Do Tell: A Reading Series & Art Review

Discussing the floundering yet still highly relevant Yankees on July 9th, 2026. Can they turn it around? Why do people tell lies about Brian Cashman? Who should the Yankees target at the trading deadline?

These Psychic Fields From the hotel window The city is a kaleidoscope Of blurred light In the bedroom mirror You voice your positive affirmation Once, and then twice On the nightstand There’s a torn pack of baseball cards And an empty bottle of Sapporo You watch another Twilight Zone Incredulous at the idea There’s two hours until tomorrow These psychic fields That connect you & me It has to be re...

Island of Broken Boys This piece of plastic Is fantastic Accompanies me Through the sullen snow Our future recedes It was once orgiastic Now I practice Forgetting what I know The chief of police Held a press conference I watched it through the Window of a bar Where a faceless man Stirred a gin and tonic Watched a commercial With a pretty, singing star Jammed a cold hand in my overcoat And I contin...

Blunderland The streetlights glowed Chrystal white Against a confetti veil Of falling snow We looked to the left, looked to the right Picked nowhere in particular To go The champagne was nestled In the crook of your scarecrow arm We thought we’d spend The rest of our lives Never hearing an alarm Blunderland, Blunderland I guess it’s hard to understand How heavy reality rests In the palm of an ordi...

I Know Better Ice cold morning A hole in my shoe I have to make some money To afford fast food It is raining razor blades But I’m in a good mood Everyone gets lucky sometimes I’m about due People bleed in different places diamond-shaped cuts in their faces Gashes on their elbows and knees Turn to ice-sealed scabs at 11 degrees I know better To be undermined by bad weather You shouldn’t be swayed B...

Hungarian Rhapsody -- Winter by Matt Waters

Burnt Leaves You never ask me to come over When you sit at the end of the bar With a look on your face Like you’re watching the implosion of a star Was it another audition Where the casting director led you on? Now you’re looking to score So we can discuss the golden era past the break of dawn I never tell you that you’re too temperamental For such a brutal line of work That your kindness would be...

Winding Down So vast This Expanse The moon surface Of my mind Lamp-light frames the snow And we go Deeper into that gentle night Which is blind to the past The roles we’ve been cast The dreams that have been denied Chorus: Winding down The lights flicker in town Then they die They die They die I have no illusions I’m paid to entertain the delusions Of the hierarchies and their disaffected Sons Con...

Halloween Well, they said this one’s serious And not to go outside and smoke I figured my mother wasn’t delirious So I took note Hunkered alone in the basement Watching Season 5 of Mad Men I called to make sure you were aware And to feel like you still were a friend You sounded agitated And staticky on the line I said, you didn’t let that stupid bastard Talk you into giving him a ride Chorus There...

The autumn twilight The masquerade The days move forward Thoughtless cadets on parade Do I feel more afraid? Than what I used to be? Of being somebody, or nobody A fading glint Took me for a walk I buttoned my coat Though you wanted to talk With your dissolvable salt I know you didn’t mean to You’re just telling the truth The faces of strangers The indifference of a moment A neighborhood renting B...

Moonlight Sonata -- Fall by Matt Waters

Holy Summer Night Somewhere between Lucky & free Off the train And on the scene The trees smile Ominously Forever We shall not be The warm wind sings Deliriously The stars are our shining Canopy Above frenetic Repartee Among unknown and Ambitious company This moment is a memory Oh, holy summer night I stay alive To feel your Plight Betwixt and between Inherited identity Surviving a strange dream C...

At The National Show A cloudless summer day Got off the wrong stop on the train Before the low-hanging night Was engulfed by rain I was walking through the park And the show decided to start Heard the man singing about soul And I moved nearer to take part Had ventured out solo Instead of staying home A few of my recent dates Were like talking to a stone I swear I felt you there And in my memory I...

Verona Revisited I was thinking about a summer moon I was remembering the bomb in Times Square I was recalling that when I was with you I didn’t really care I was ransoming your promise I was planning out our life I never stopped to ask myself If you wanted to be my wife Bought time With a rhyme Never even tasted Your lips upon mine Swore I was fine Drinking the world But a guy can get tangled Whe...

Paradigm You’re a glistening Apparition It’s 102 by the pool And you can’t remember The last time you went to school That professor Was unsuccessful He tried inspiring through shame But his intellectual ambition Couldn’t be more lame Had a Paradigm But it all liquifies Beneath the sun You’d jot a thought If you wanted one Bought a new Bathing suit Your teacher mother died young Your salesman fathe...

Scenes that are Brightest -- Summer by Matt Waters

Equinox The sun slipped through A gray cloud And illuminated the scene The town hummed In sudden thrall As if stirred from winter’s dream The sidewalk seized By children spilling Recklessly into the street You stood beside The blue mailbox Where we’d agreed to meet Equinox, equinox Has returned to life Everything you forgot Equinox, equinox All your old hopes Preserved in an ink blot Equinox, equi...

Freedom Tower (album version) by Matt Waters

The Logic of His Wings He spent the night Thinking about Madonna While restless In his bed During many of his Waking hours He acted out the dreams In his head Of being a baseball star A wrestler An action hero without a face The world was moving so Frantically around him He couldn’t keep Pace Beauty everywhere Beauty nowhere Beauty in the shadow Of a pigeon At the park Beauty everywhere Beauty now...

Intermezzo - Spring by Matt Waters

Douglas Gabriel Rotello (born February 9, 1963) is an American musician, writer and filmmaker. He created New York's Downtown Divas revues in the 1980s, was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of OutWeek magazine, became the first openly gay columnist at a major American newspaper, New York Newsday, and authored the book Sexual Ecology. He now makes documentaries for HBO, The History Channel and ot...

Baseball! Yankees! Life!

Glittering How did we ever get in this party? They must have thought we were the help The mid-June moon Over the World Trade Tomb I don’t want to leave this rooftop With anyone else The host is a rich old bachelor Loves what I paint Your platinum hair Is like permission to stare You say, considering the three thousand churches In this town there are precious few saints Chorus: And it is summer nex...

Breaking down the Yankees 2025 season and options for improvement heading into 2026.

Chimney The autumn twilight The masquerade The days move forward Thoughtless cadets on parade Do I feel more afraid? Than what I used to be? Of being somebody, or nobody A fading glint Took me for a walk I buttoned my coat Though you wanted to talk With your dissolvable salt I know you didn’t mean to You’re just telling the truth The faces of strangers The indifference of a moment A neighborhood r...