Alice Flecha: Madam Death

In Brazil, Death is female.

Madam Death wears a black cloak

the hood of which she always wears (even at the beach).

Like Mr. Stork, her competitor, she is timeless

and takes well-deserved pride

in always getting her man

for no one can escape her or her List

however hard they try.

Madam Death is not unfeeling

but she must do her thankless job

day in and day out

she chases, cajoles, traps and tricks

she always gets her man

doing the job no one wants—

someone has to, after all.

Madam Death is capable of great compassion,

but dying is a side-effect of living;

some evade her for years

some meet her far too early

but sooner or later she will always get her man.

Madam Death is aware of the injustice of it all;

but her List is not hers to control,

and once in it, your future is set.

In Brazil it is understood

that it’s natural to dislike her;

she takes away our loved ones,

sends us into the unknown;

when angered, we are told, her wrath is great:

even her godson was not spared

for trying to cheat her,

or so the story goes.

Yet Madam Death is not evil,

nor does she want our fear—

all she asks for is respect.

That is why

we often give her a rarely-used honorific

usually saved for the elderly.

That is why beneath her cloak

the hood of which she always wears (even at the beach)

she is a skeleton, her face a grinning skull

eery and unnerving, 

yet oddly funny

for Madam Death without her hood  
is like a werewolf wearing a cone of shame.