Alice's Madam Death (take three!)

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;

and her List is not hers to control,

once in it, your future is set.

she'll tackle you down if she has to -

one way or another she always gets her man.

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.

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.