Coqueta’s descent
This short story was originally written as a prose poem in Spanish. After many editing rounds, it became a free form poem. It sat in my computer for over a year awaiting another editing round. I had forgotten about it when I found it again while cleaning my files. When I read it again I liked the idea of it but thought it was better suited for an English writing. So, I translated the poem into a free verse English version. Then, I thought that it felt more like a short story than a poem. For the millionth time, I edited it again. I sent it to a literary competition but it was rejected. I might as well upload it here.
Coqueta’s descent
Coqueta cannot find a tile to anchor her pink bow. The weight of the oxygen tank digs into her exposed skin. She can feel the life vest deflate as her body begins to sink. There is a horse race galloping inside her chest. She can feel the rays of the sun even though her body started shivering long ago. Soon, her chest is underwater. Then, her neck is submerged.
Coqueta’s legs begin to move. They are trying to find a solid surface to anchor themselves to. They tremble as if starting to learn how to skip two rhythmically opposing ropes. It is a frantic movement. But the only resistance her legs meet is from the salt water that engulfs her wiggling body. Her legs battle and strain as dread settles deep in her chest. Her legs can kick and struggle but they will never form a ripple on those ocean waters. She notices that underneath her body, there is no floor to break her descent.
A hurried galloping that advances from her aorta, through her carotid artery, and into the capillaries of her brain is threatening to knock her out. Had half her face not been covered by water… had the diving gear not conspired with gravity to sink her body to the bottom of the ocean... Coqueta thought that the force produced by the rush of blood advancing through her veins and up her brain could have lifted her body above the ocean tide. Surely this much adrenaline could propel her body up in the sky! The blood rush alone should be producing enough force to separate herself from the shackles pulling her body down.
If only her body had not been trapped by that gear meant to keep her alive, that same gear that now condemned her to drown. Had her lungs not burned this much… But she is already half dazed, and her adrenals could not possibly excrete any more adrenaline into her bloodstream. Her vision starts to get blurry. The diving gear ferociously fought against the buoyancy of her skin and bones. She knew. She knew the gear had won the battle. And Coqueta felt so fatigued! She thought no one's body was meant to experience this much adrenaline.
She sank.
Her body sank as if it were pulled down by the stones inside Virginia's raincoat. Her body dragged her down the ocean. She sank into an abyss even more bottomless than the one she felt all her life. Coqueta knew she would be lost to the cold ocean ground once she hit rock bottom. But her abrupt descent suddenly stopped. She felt suspended in those salty indigo waters. It made no sense! Just moments prior, those diving lines weighed her down, but now, everything felt… weightless.
Her body was free of any diving gear. She was naked. She could breathe even though she was submerged in deep ocean waters. She no longer felt cold. Her body was not shivering any more. She was suspended between the bathyal zone and the abyssal zone. There was no light that could shine this low. Soon after, she felt the heaviness of four hundred atmospheres above her crush her dreams.
Her ventricles finally relaxed enough to not pump as much blood to her body. Beat by beat, the ventricles slowed down. Coqueta felt her body shut down. She smiled once more as she thought that resting on that oceanic plateau of solitude, surrounded by so much calmness, was not so tragic after all.
