The Penis Monologues: Rare Letters Collection will become a growing collection of actual letters and literary works from survivors, caregivers, clinicians, and witnesses living near the hard edges of rare cancer. Some letters are written directly to the cancer. Some are written from the infusion chair, the waiting room, the bedside, or the long quiet after treatment.

This collection begins with penile cancer because too much silence has lived there for too long, but its door is opened wide enough for other rare cancer voices to enter. These pieces will be true letters, literary works, poems, monologues, or reflective works—but each one carries the same purpose: to give language to what illness often leaves unsaid.

NOTE: “Squam” is my name for my squamous cell carcinoma — not a medical name, but a personal one. It is small on purpose. Sharp on purpose. Disrespectful on purpose. Cancer comes dressed in long words, cold rooms, serious faces, and paperwork that can make a person feel like they have been renamed by fear. I needed a shorter name for it. A lesser name. Something I could look in the eye and refuse to bow to. My nickname is a jab, a little insult in a clean shirt to the disease we are not treating (06-09-2026).

This first letter begins Penis Monologues: The Rare Letters Collection with the Penile Squamous Cell Carcinoma (PSCC) cancer that tried to take my body, my privacy, my language, and my peace. This letter is not written as a victory speech. It is written from the harder place — the place where humor still has teeth, grief still wears good shoes, and survival is not soft just because I am still standing.