Hanging Fire

Audre Lorde had a difficult relationship with her parents, especially her mother. In her essay “Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred, and Anger,” Audre Lorde discusses her mother’s colorism—favoritism based on skin tone. Audre’s mother, Linda Gertrude Belmar Lorde, and Audre’s sisters all had lighter skin than Audre, and this led to preferential treatment in their family home. Audre’s father, Frederick Byron Lorde, was the only one in the family who had darker skin than Audre. Linda was born in the West Indies, but could pass for white. Audre writes, “I was always jealous of my sisters because my mother thought they were such good girls, whereas I was bad, always in trouble […] Did bad mean Black?” (Sister Outsider 149). This particular family dynamic—the hierarchy of Audre’s mother based on color—is hinted at in “Hanging Fire.”

In both her essay and her poem, Audre discusses her knees. In “Eye to Eye,” she writes, “And, oh, the sins of my dark elbows and knees” (Sister Outsider 149). This can be compared to the lines “how come my knees are / always so ashy” (Lines 6-7) in “Hanging Fire.” Audre is ashamed of how her knees look because of her mother’s colorism.