Speaker Reflection "Hanging Fire"

"Hanging Fire" by Audre Lorde is a poem about a 14 year old girl, who narrates the stanzas. Her voice is worrisome, as she questions her death in every stanza.

She introduces her worries by atributing the awkwardness of teenagers, to a common worry of "what if I die". The speakers introduces the thought as if it were a statement, followed by "and momma's in the bedroom/with the door closed". The use of "and" instead of "if" gives the speaker a sad tone. She implies that her mother is often somewhere else, "with the door closed" not only meaning her beedroom, but other situations with the dorry being a blocker, and rarely around the girl.

The speaker goes on to worry about typical teenage problems such as dancing, until her death wanders back into the poem, and she elaborates on the idea of her distant mother, as she seems vulnerable when she thinks up the scenarios about her death and her future.

The third stanza shifts from sorrow to anger. She is mad that "nobody even stops to think/about my side of it". Implying htere is another side to her sorrow, possibly her mothers. I get the impression that everyone is concerned with the problems of her mother that no one stops to think about her problems.