It seems to me that the focus of this song is the absolutely pessimistic world view of the singer. The song opens with two stories that have an unhappy beginning, but at the end of the song those two stories are resolved with happy endings. The third story is his own story ("The bullet in the yard...It's all just cinder") and is not resolved with a happy ending by the end of the song. As a result, he's now discouraged and cynical...haunted by the happy endings that he could not claim as his own.
It seems to me that the focus of this song is the absolutely pessimistic world view of the singer. The song opens with two stories that have an unhappy beginning, but at the end of the song those two stories are resolved with happy endings. The third story is his own story ("The bullet in the yard...It's all just cinder") and is not resolved with a happy ending by the end of the song. As a result, he's now discouraged and cynical...haunted by the happy endings that he could not claim as his own.