Hanging Fire

"Hanging Fire" was about the anxieties and insecurities of the persona of the poem. She's insecure with her physical appearance. She hates that she's black, that her knees are always ashy, and that she needs to wear braces. She dislikes having to fall for a boy who still sucks his thumbs. She dislikes having a small room and having no say in being on the Math team. She worries about almost everything. She worries not learning how to dance in time for the next party and about what to wear for tomorrow. And lastly she worries about death. In addition, her worry with death is of different degree. In the first stanza, she's worried that she'd die before morning. In the second stanza, she's worried she'd die before graduation and at the same time worried about what might people said about her in her wake. And in the last stanza, she's worried that she would not live long enough to grow. It feels like at first she was just randomly thinking about the possibility of dying. Then, her worry with death heightened including her anxiety of what may people say about her. And at the very end, she's really worried that she might actually die and never be able realize her dreams. The weird thing is as the thought of death continually comes out, the line "and momma's in the bedroom with the door closed" is repeatedly written. The line for me somewhat says that the persona and the mother had a distant relationship, that during the persona's ordeal, the mother seems to have no idea about it. And by stating that "the door is closed but not locked", it may mean that it will only take a knock (communication) for the mother to know what her daughter is undergoing through.