My Interpretation of "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action" PART TWO

Broken down gods survive

in the crevasses and mudpots 

of every beleaguered city

where it is obvious 

there are too many bodies

to cart to the ovens

or gallows

~

I think this means roughly "faith is alive in very few in a city too full of unscrupulous people."  It could also mean that very few people are able to express themselves in a place where there are so many people.  This interpretation supports the line "our labor has become more important than our silence" as meaning expression is more important than silence.

~

and our uses have become 

more important than our silence

after the fall

~

I think Lorde is talking about peoples' silence not helping them, more specifically, her realization of how useless silence is as she nears her death - "the fall."

~

Too many empty cases

of blood left to bury or burn

there will be no body left

to listen

~

To me, this line is comparing human life to an expendable resource.  Too much blood left to burn represents the untapped potential in silent people as well as the untapped potential in her life that her impending death will seal.  

~

and our labor 

has become more important

than our silence

~

She repeats this line to draw attention to the fact that we should all take advantage of the time and knowledge that we have on this Earth.  In other words, our labor - what we do on this Earth while we are alive - is more important than just living without asserting our own knowledge and vocalizing ourselves.