Hanging Fire

I think the poem is all about the hardships of a teenager, about how she feels her skin is deceiving her because it does not show her true colors, or who she really is. Her knees are ashy because of all the "falls" she has taken, I see those to be her scars of her life. Learning how to dance before the next party can just be learning how to do anything before the next moment, being a teenager is a time of learning how to be an adult. She has this fears of not making it through high school, which is a scary place for everyone, but I think it means she will not be able to do anything in life if she cant grow up. She thinks there is nothing to do or nothing that has to be done, which just means she sees no importance in anything.

The poem was entitled Hanging Fire maybe because the girl in the poem is waiting for something that would change her life but couldn't grasp it. As always, a teenager thinks that no one cares about them and everything is either right or wrong no matter what she has to say about it. Making a team or getting higher grades is an accomplishment to a teenager, she wishes she had an accomplishment but does not see all the little things she has done. She wonders why she is the different one who has braces. And finally she wonders who people are going to see her as tomorrow, her clothes, we all know teenagers judge each other based on appearance, so she does not know how she will portray herself in the future. And finally about her mom, she is the person who the writer feels has betrayed her most, she has not been there to comfort here when she needed it or she has not listened. She was betrayed by her mother in her time of need. That's what the writer wanted to emphasize more by repeating the line "and mommas there with the door closed".
All of us has gone through this period, and some of us barely made it we just have to get through it and hope everything comes out for the best. =