DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE Poem: NAZIA, by Nate Didier

Our worlds collided over a decade ago, you were three and our time together lasted minutes.
You were such a beautiful child, dark brown eyes against olive skin.
I wonder who you are today, what kind of adolescent you became.

I wonder if you are still alive.

I can still feel you stare, begging me to make the pain go away.
I can still see your skin coming off in clumps from the burns covering your tiny body.
I can still hear your screams, echoing in my ears for eternity.
And there is nothing I can do but hold your gaze.

I am so sorry.

Author bio

SGT Nate Didier was an Infantryman with C. Co. 1-133rd INF, 2/34th BCT deployed to Kosovo from 2007-2008 and Nuristan Province, Afghanistan from 2010-2011. He resides in Cedar Falls, Iowa and enjoys the outdoors, reading, and spending time with his children. He has previously been published in Culture Cult Press’ Spring Offensive: Poetry of Strife and Spring (2023) and the Right Hand Pointing’s The Law of Forgetting: Poems on Moral Injury (2023).