This is about loving someone through addiction and watching them leave for someone worse. The narrator knows the new relationship is destructive but refuses to compete. He's saying goodbye while making sure she knows he was real, even if that changes nothing.
I had a dream that we were doing hard drugs in a street alley / You were lying dead next to me
The opening collapses dream and memory into the same space. Whether this happened or not matters less than the fact that it feels true enough to lead with.
And when they picked you up to move you / All the sheets were red / You were a woman then
That final line lands like a gut punch. The blood makes her real in a way the dream couldn't. She stops being an idea and becomes a body that bleeds.
And you can tell me that he loves you, but I know it's a lie / 'Cause I've seen how he treats you
He's not arguing. He's stating what he knows and letting it sit there. The restraint makes it hit harder than any accusation would.
But don't come home just to leave / 'Cause I'm glad that I found you / But I don't want you to leave me hanging around
This is the first time he sets a boundary. The whole song has been him letting her go, but he won't be the backup plan. It's the quietest way to say you deserve better than this.
This is one of the saddest love songs because it refuses to beg. He's not trying to change her mind. He's just making sure she knows the difference between someone who loves her and someone who doesn't. That honesty is the last kind thing he can do.