The poem is a short, strange sequence of statements, and the speaker says "we" throughout, as if speaking for a whole group. The title, "Subjects," can mean people under a ruler, or the topics of a study, and both fit. The people here are not in control. They fall "by ourselves into the dirt," with no one pushing them, and they describe themselves as "broken as a fast," a odd comparison that suggests brokenness through hunger, or the breaking of a fast, a kind of ending and beginning at once.
The rope is the hardest image. It is "a necessity of no profit to us," something needed that gives nothing back. It could suggest a noose, a leash, or a lifeline, and the poem doesn't say which. The last line is the most unsettling: the rope seems to "whisper dance well." That command feels half mocking, half coaxing, as though someone with power wants a performance from people who are already down. The mood is bleak, tense, and quietly menacing.