For Al

One of my favorite melanoma awareness bloggers and Facebook page hosts, Al, recently posted a silent, but powerful little video on YouTube.

Al may not really want a soundtrack for his video, and it surely doesn’t need one. But I wrote one anyway to the tune of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence”, just because I admire what he does in speaking out about a disease that claimed the life of his older brother. No one could fault Al if he’d chosen to bear his grief in silence. But instead he’s channeled it into a tireless awareness campaign about this relatively unknown cancer that’s rarely talked about outside the walls of this Hotel.

Sometimes I feel like there’s a sound barrier surrounding the melanoma community and that our voices aren’t heard in the outside world, but Al’s doing more than his share to breach that barrier. So, Al, here’s one for you…



Hello paleness, our good friend,
I've come to promote you again.
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was grieving.
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains,
To breach the wall of silence.

On restless nights I blog to gain
Informed minds ‘bout Black C’s pain.
'Neath the halo of a desk lamp,
I voice my anger ‘bout those damn sunlamps,
’Cause young folks don’t know ‘bout the risks of those UV lights
That threaten lives.
I breach the wall of silence.

And in this Black C fight I see
Ten million people, maybe more.
People tanning without sunscreen,
People hearing without listening,
People tanning hides like Black C’s oh so rare.
But I have dared
To breach the wall of silence.

"Folks" said I, "You do not know,
Silence lets this cancer grow.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Share my posts so that black’s pink new."
And my words ‘bout Black C’s victims tell
Of despair.
I’ll breach the wall of silence.

Outside, people bowed and prayed
To the UV god they made.
And my blog flashed out its warning,
In the posts that I was sharing.
And my blog said, the words of C’s victims are written on their Facebook walls
To be read by all.
I’ll knock holes in the wall of silence.