Show Do Tell: A Reading Series & Art Review

Show Do Tell: A Reading Series & Art Review

By Matt WatersMusic
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Show Do Tell: A Reading Series & Art Review episodes

  • Halloween
    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’s always tomorrow
    Until there isn’t
    There’s always the light of lightening in a storm
    There’s always tomorrow until there isn’t
    I will love you
    Forevermore
    Now the tempest seemed to be touching down
    My mother shouted downstairs, “some maniacs are staying in the casino.”
    She added its coming fast
    And asked about that, “girl you know.”
    If I’d known we’d split
    I’d have never introduced you to my mom
    If she knew you revenge cheated
    She might not care if you were harmed
    But it gave me another twinge thinking about the beginning
    You drove me wild when you laughed fluttering your eyelids
    Then under the streetlight outside your house
    We talked about having kids
    Chorus
    I hear the rain hard while
    Pacing from the boiler to my couch
    Even after the texts with the threats
    It’s you I still can’t live without
    So I raced up the stairs, put on my Yankees hat
    And grabbed the keys
    Planning to find you and John
    To explain what state of emergency means
    But my father grabbed me with half-my-shoulder
    Out the door
    And was already pulling me back inside before
    I even answered when he asked, “what the hell are you leaving for?”
    Chorus
    Well, two days later
    And it was Halloween
    I saw some little girl walking around a fallen tree
    And she was dressed like a Disney queen
    I didn’t feel nothing
    While walking through our little shattered town
    I couldn’t lose this shining vision of you
    Wearing a white wedding gown
    It was all my goddamn fault
    I grew up getting called ugly
    I couldn’t stop myself from wanting someone else
    Even when I knew you loved me
    I heard he wanted cigarettes
    And convinced you to take him
    The priest said nothing about his sins
    Nobody wanted to blame him
    Chorus
    You know what I got in my head?
    While I toss and turn
    In the absence of sleep
    In my childhood bed?
    That I’ve never really stopped taking
    That first walk right after the storm
    I’ve never wanted to mend the
    Threads of our life together that were torn
    Nowadays they say I make you a saint
    Because I block your flaws out of my mind
    They tell me it’s only natural for people to heal
    When they’ve had enough time
    Chorus
    7 min
  • burnt leaves
    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 better served
    As a teacher or a nurse
    Nor that your breakdowns amuse me
    For I have seen so much worse
    Beautiful minds who could have defined the times
    Lost because they got sick first
    Chorus
    Burnt leaves
    Scatter at my feet
    They’ll disappear down a gutter
    And life is never that neat
    I feel
    This forgotten cemetery inside me
    And for the grace of an unknown God
    I’d sleep forever beneath a white sheet
    Once or twice, you’ve asked outright
    Why I give a damn about you
    Another anonymous Midwest actress
    Probably only passing through
    I never reveal
    My habit for survival has left me alone
    That weeks go by and you’re the only one
    Who calls me on the phone
    Imagine that, 20 year age gap
    And I can’t even pretend to be into girls
    Something else must remind me of my mother
    Aside from those dark brown curls
    So regular together
    The waiters gave us a nickname with a ring of truth
    I’m the Old Man and the Sea
    You’re Betty Boop
    Chorus
    Well tonight, I think I got something different
    To tell you
    These minor defeats and indignities
    Just haven’t been enough to quell you
    And even if it makes you hate me,
    Man its work the risk
    I’m so damn tired of watching beautiful people
    Who think pain and rejection make them exist
    Because you’re better than this
    Better than dancing on a puppeteer’s string
    You might not want to hear it
    But the world doesn’t need another pretty face to sing
    But who am I kidding? I’ll catch the bare October moon
    In the cab’s rearview once we leave this place
    And we’ll wind up talking ceaselessly about Cassavetes
    And Scorsese, our version of saying grace
    You’ll mumble how you feel safe with me, that
    I’m the closest you’ve ever had to a father
    A dire warning about your destruction will linger on my lips
    But I just won’t bother
    Chorus
    6 min
  • fall is falling
    Fall is Falling
    It seemed like a good idea
    She was 23 with a book deal
    Aren’t some fantasies allowed to be real?
    The exceptional ideal
    Chorus:
    Though I really hoped it
    We are not the same
    Fall is falling
    You’re not calling my name
    My friends said i miscalculated
    I thought they were sexually frustrated
    We all might have necks and backs aggravated
    But that shouldn’t mean a life of hesitation
    Chorus
    My ex-wife called her a gold-digger
    And was appalled she was younger than their babysitter
    Asked, ‘when she’s sitting on your lap, what nonsense does she whisper?’
    I told my therapist, ‘see, this is why I don’t miss her.’
    Chorus
    It was all so wonderful in the beginning
    Your lips reminded me I hadn’t been living
    When they stared at restaurants, you’d just be grinning
    I’d think to myself, ‘these jealous pricks hate that I’m winning.’
    Chorus
    But the slightest thing can cause severe tension
    You felt betrayed when I wouldn’t make an investment
    In your mental patient friend’s latest invention
    Something about recycling plant stems for hair extensions
    Chorus
    And of course it all fell apart
    You wrote a shitty second novel about your lack of a heart
    Those fickle critics tore it apart
    While I had a cardiac episode in a Wal-Mart
    Chorus
    Well, I don’t have one regret
    I’m 85 now and my grandkids are in debt
    But for a life in letters, what could I expect?
    We may have parted, but at least we met
    Chorus
    4 min
  • "the logic of his wings"
    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 nowhere
    His beautiful house
    Was falling apart
    The hope of what a new day brings
    The logic of his wings
    Inject adrenaline into a broken heart
    And fly, triumphantly
    Toward a dying star
    A little brown wallet
    Full of grandma’s money
    And a bike ride
    To the candy store
    A Butterfinger, a videogame magazine
    Were everything he can afford
    The bright colors
    Of dreamlands
    Constructed in cubicles
    Were the brilliant backgrounds
    Above the orchestra
    For a middle-class American
    Musical
    Beauty everywhere
    Beauty nowhere
    Beauty in those sirens
    Wailing in the
    Dark
    Beauty everywhere, beauty nowhere
    Bartenders, construction workers and cops
    Were all playing their part
    The hope of what a new day brings
    The logic of his wings
    Inject adrenaline into a broken heart
    Then fly, triumphantly
    Toward a dying star
    5 min
  • Freedom Tower
    Freedom Tower
    This city used to be
    Lit by torchlight
    Dusk has fallen
    Deep
    I am caught between
    Cohabitating realities
    And unsure which dream
    I get to keep
    They finished the
    Freedom Tower
    My uncle said
    “They should have rebuilt it the same.”
    On the avenues paper men make an indifferent show
    Of disintegrating in the rain
    Chorus:
    I was the toast of Greenwich Village
    For about two minutes, once
    Glory was the price of tuition
    I wrote a book about alcoholic doves
    It was an elevated position
    A better view to look down at us
    I was supposed to learn a lesson
    But I keep forgetting what it was
    The romanticists loathe
    These bright corners
    Because they preferred privacy
    While watching my friend die
    They bloviate about
    Complicity
    And drink holy water
    From each other’s pierced sides
    Such is life
    In the unfolding parable
    I chase money to treat
    Such deep resentment
    I stroll these angular
    Blocks alone
    Like an ink-less pen
    Scratching the pavement
    Chorus
    The future is a
    Too cold day in May
    With only graspable fantasy
    An antidote to the news
    We are fractured, we are ruled
    Their sparkling communal vision
    Is always due to be disabused
    I’ve reached the block
    With my favorite pub
    And aged a little
    Over a decade
    I learned too late
    Your finest expression of love
    Were all my delusions
    You so silently forgave
    Chorus
    Five rounds
    Of rum and coke
    And the Yankees
    Holding off the Reds
    I tell the taxi driver
    To drive me past the epilogue
    Because I never like knowing
    How the novel ends
    Oh, verticalized glass
    With our reflections unkept
    We slide off with the ease
    Of a great promise unmet
    And the cabbie doesn’t answer
    When I ask about the ducks
    At Central Park
    Maybe he read the book
    And just didn’t like that part
    7 min
  • glittering
    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 next week
    If I could have remembered to speak
    I would invite you to Coney Island
    Not easy surviving
    In a city where indifference
    Is often the closest thing to kindness
    I’m just wondering
    If you are also pretending
    Not sure I deserve a happy ending
    Glittering, glittering
    We were glittering
    They warned me it all ends
    Embittering
    Yet I swore it wouldn’t happen to us
    Flickering lighting
    Down the complex stairwell
    And you made a joke
    About us being murdered
    Then your brother got ashes
    Caught in his sunglasses
    At that point your attitude became
    Quite a bit sterner
    You accused me of contentment
    Cause I had something going
    While the absurdity of our lives
    Had been revealed bare
    According to my recollection
    We parted at an intersection
    The host advised you
    Are not exactly rare
    Chorus
    Twenty years later
    It’s happy hour
    At the bar where I tend for
    Rent
    You have the same circuitous grin
    Here at Tailspin
    And the corners of your five spot
    Are bent
    The art world hyped me
    Then forgot completely
    The end of my career couldn’t have been
    More discreet
    Never saw you on television
    But wouldn’t make an assumption
    You stare an extra second
    Order another Whiskey Neat
    Chorus.
    10 min
  • equinox
    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
    You stored away in a box
    Equinox, equinox
    Provides the strength to lift
    Those ideals you long ago dropped
    The April sky
    Seems pastel painted
    Onto the lenses before your eyes
    We talked about the government, the Internet
    And you wondered when I’d ever
    Realize
    You said, ‘the only hope is the
    Present moment, cyclical and
    Interpersonal.’
    We never related
    About interfacing
    And my depression was
    Non-negotiable
    Chorus
    On the aching boulevard
    It made too much sense
    To tell each other
    Goodbye
    Not sure what you wanted by meeting
    We didn’t click, I never thought
    You needed to apologize
    But before we parted
    You offered an embrace
    And your arms were still
    So thick and strong
    That lingering sense
    Of an unfinished sentence
    Dissolved upon your whisper,
    “Cheer up Julia, the weather’s getting warm.”
    Chorus.
    6 min
  • new york summer
    New York Summer
    Live
    And forgive
    It’s New York summer
    Grieve
    Don’t leave
    It’s New York Summer
    Fly
    But don’t die
    Lest faith be torn asunder
    Survive
    And thrive
    It’s New York Summer
    The policemen
    And drug dealers
    Are serenading you
    The Yankees and
    The Homeless
    Want to rendezvous
    On River Avenue
    Its New York Summer
    Cry
    Don’t simply sigh
    Its New York summer
    Sweat
    For respect
    Its New York summer
    Never look
    Remotely shook
    While visiting your mother
    Sizzling pavement scenes
    Big money dreams
    Its New York summer
    The actress and
    Prostitute
    Want to interrogate you
    The Mets
    And the Tourists
    Wouldn’t know what to do
    If they had to rescue you
    Its New York Summer
    3 min

About Show Do Tell: A Reading Series & Art Review

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Matt Waters is a singer-songwriter from New York City. His songs range from character studies of the contemporary American to intimate explorations of love. A writer of fiction, he attempts to meld…