the minnesota review n.s. 45-46 (1995-96)

Denise Duhamel

Beauty Sleep

When Prince Charming descended on Snow White,
she brushed his kiss away like it was a fly.
Rolling over, she finished her dream, and began
a new one. Once in a while she talks
in her sleep: suffragette, ERA, Anita Hill.
Historians have recently brushed the dust
from her Timex alarm clock. They tell us
it's set for quarter to "safe."