The speaker feels like an extra in his own life. Using the language of film, he describes himself as a background figure "walking left to right" while someone else fills the top frame. The role doesn't pay the bills, and he still obeys the director's voice and swallows his pain. It's a picture of someone doing as he's told while his own story belongs to other people.
The second half turns darker and more financial. His soul has been "foreclosed," and the "loan sharks" keep calling, in voices that sound both seductive and menacing. Roses and lead suggest that comfort and violence arrive together, and the line about burying children raises the stakes beyond one person's struggle. The ending shifts toward hope. Someday he'll sail away in a boat made from "prayer's hands," and the sun will shake the thunder out of the clouds. The mood is weary and bitter, but it closes on a stubborn wish for rescue and clearer skies.