Lots of threads went into this one. Eventually it became a story about an arranged marriage which was sapping the lifeblood (or will to live) from the woman in the relationship. She moves on. The 'sting in the tail' of the story can be found in the last line of the song.
Lyrics
You walk past the padlocked factory gates again
Hoping and praying that something is coming your way
You don’t know what to say or do
Should you stay around here when all you’ve got to do is
Waiting & washing for your brood
And nothing can take away your sadness
And so your lifeblood
Begins to bleed.
Forced to marry young and forget your education
Now there’s someone else in charge of your dreams and you’re expectations
Is it any wonder
That your lifeblood
Watch it slip away
Its time to go
Making a new life’s not that easy with the rain coming down
In this dirty old town
The grass is greener, but you know there’s limitations
Have faith in yourself that you have the heart to go the distance
With a new number and a new destination
It all belongs to you, its all of your own creation
A certain feeling in the air
That this is change
Your time to re-arrange
And I start to bleed
