"Neon" performed by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

​Neon

Queens, November 25, 2006. Outside, a neon sign read CLUB KALUA. Sean Bell died on the morning of his wedding when plainclothes and undercover NYPD officers shot into his vehicle a total of fifty times, believing him armed. None was found guilty.
 
A chosen element glows, prized for its long life, rare on the earth.
Technique means to heat and bend slowly, till transparency is malleable

as bullet-pressured air. Cold cathodes conduct the intent.
Wavelength a factor of phosphor coating, inner and lungwise:

call that the color. Call it internalized. On a night like any other,
sans serif overhead bathed red, filtering every movement as birth.