Kilrea poet dedicates verse to Inga-Maria
After a recent visit to the memorial stone erected in Ballypatrick Forest near Ballycastle Ballycastle in memory of the murdered German backpacker Inga-Maria Hauser, a Kilrea poet has been moved to put her thoughts into verse.
Clare McCotter was present for the unveiling of the memorial stone when she recited a trilogy of poems she had written to mark the 30th anniversary of the murder:
MEMORIAL DEER
This evening
from the bracken margins
one seemed to clock me
standing beside the date
your tiny hand
first plucked
starfish from the air
that other
etched beneath
when you scratched
and clawed
and bled
but if turned to stone
like the fawn
when a shadow stoops
in long grasses
or the listener
with dark news
pointed at his chest
you might still be here
and loved less
asked to tell
why no bruises
were ever seen
why you didn’t scream
the cedars down
why you couldn’t read
scent messages on the wind.
That night
the deer fled
hill mist in their eyes
their hearts snow-drenched tulips.