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John Rzeznik has said this song is his "Catholic school teenage sex-anthem" (or something along those lines). Catholic girl finds a guy, fall in love, he gets her pregnant, she is thinking about aborting the baby... the Catholic church abolishes her, her parents are pissed... but the guy loves her and gives her a choice: "do you want to get married" (please the parents, do it the traditional way and stay out of trouble) "or run away" (who gives a flying fizuck what they think? let's get the hell out of here and live our life together, we don't need them! *that'd be my choice*). Yep.

The song is about a girl (May) who gets pregnant, has an abortion and is sent away (to a place for troubled teens?) by her Catholic parents. The guy, still madly in love, wants to run away with her & get married (if she's up for it) so they can be together. 'Do you wake up on your own? And wonder where you are...' (she's obviously not waking up in her own bed) 'Don't you love the life you killed' (the abortion she had) 'The priest is on the phone' (self explanatory) 'Your father hit the wall' (as most fathers would) 'Your ma disowned you' (self explanatory) 'Don't supposed I'll ever know what it means to be a man' (he wanted to get married & be a father but she had the abortion) 'I wanna wake up where you are' (she's off someplace else) 'What you feel is what you are and what you are is beautiful' (she doesn't feel too good about herself but he still thinks she's beautiful) 'Do you wanna get married, or run away?' (self explanatory) Of course... I could be totally wrong!

Clearly in the stanza "Don't you love the life you killed/ The priest is on the phone/ Your father hit the wall/ Your ma disowned you", the girl had an ABORTION ("the life you killed"), and her parents and parish priest are on her case about it. Generally, the song is about growing up, naivity, falling in love, and the overwhelming powerlessness you feel in those years between being a child and becoming an adult. Terrific song, great lyrics, achingly real.

Or maybe not about abortion, per se, but at least about unplanned pregnancy. "The life you killed" could be her own life... as in the way things used to be before. I could see her parents and priest being really upset about her being pregnant. As for the guy's side, he says he'll marry her, but the whole tone on his part is uncertainty ("I don't suppose I'll ever know / What it means to be a man"). He says he will marry her and give her the world, but he seems pretty unsure about that himself. Best lines of the song -- "And I'll do anything you ever dreamed to be complete / Little pieces of the nothing, that fall". So poetic. Also one of the more mysterious ones, but I'm inclined to think it's about his promises to take care of her when/if they get married.

Here's what I think.. Don't you love the life you killed (she is pregnant and she is considering getting an abortion, it screwed up her life) The priest is on the phone (the church she goes to is upset) Your father hit the wall (her dad is upset) Your ma disowned you (her mom is really upset and disowned her) Don't supposed I'll ever know What it means to be a man Somethin' I can't change I'll live around it (he's not sure of himself, that he can make a good life for her and her baby if he keeps it.. or if he'll have enough courage to keep the baby in the first place) and I'll do anythin' you ever dreamed to be complete Little pieces of the nothin' that fall (he's ready and willing to do anything he can do for the girl and the baby even though he's not sure of himself) Oh May Do you wanna get married, or run away? (do you want to keep the baby or abort it and run away from the responsibilities?) Probably wrong, but I tried!

the song is about Abortion.. "dont you love the life you killed" "guess i'll never know what it means to be a man"... obviously...

She had an abortion and now her life is all messed up and he's letting her know that he's there for her no matter what.

This about a young couple. The girl, May, gets pregnant and when the boy doesn't step up she gives up on him and gets an abortion. The boy, who is the narrator, is hard on both of them. First her: "You live with all your faults", "Did you love the life you killed?" and then himself: "Don't supposed I'll ever know what it means to be a man. Somethin' I can't change, I'll live around it". He regrets not dealing with the situation, leaving her to make a decision on her own, a decision that alienates her family and her church. He knows he'll never be able to make up for his abandonment of pregnant May. This will affect the rest of his life and his sense of manhood. However, he still desperately loves May and wants to do anything that will make her feel complete now: marriage or just going off together. He asks nothing of her, as he's been such a disappointment already, he just "wants to wake up where you are", and will never reproach her for the abortion as he knows he was equally responsible: "I won't say anything at all". I love this song (maybe mostly the singer), but I have my doubts about the boy. He loves May, but he found a pregnancy too much to deal with. Is he just as happy now that she's not pregnant? Would he act the same again if he had it to do over? Let someone else make your hard decisions? He sounds selfish. PS I know a few couples who ended early pregnancies because of timing issues. None of them stayed together, even after having other children, but then most couples don't last anyway, do they? PPS I get exhausted with people trying disappear the abortion at the center of this song. It happens. I don't know if this is Johnny's history. I don't blame him for saying May "considered" abortion on "Storytellers". What's he suppose to say in this country? And May did consider it and then acted on it. Scheesh!

this song, to me, means that there is a girl with a lot of problems (her father went crazy and her mom left her) and the guy is there for her, wanting to give her anything she wants to be able to help her and he's her escape from all this, b/c everything that happened was her fault (dont you love the life YOU killed...) so he's her getaway from it all saying he doesnt care what happened, he wants her and wants to be with her

I think its about a girl who's supposed to be getting married and the guy is saying to her, i love you, do you want to get married to him or runaway with me. So it turns out she runs away and when her parents found out (Your Father hit the wall, Your ma disowned you) and thats the life she killed because she doesnt have to go back to her old life anymore. And the rest is just him saying really sweet things to her, to make her want to run away with him. I don't know what the 'slide between those sheets of all those beds you never knew' Maybe he doesnt think she's gonna stay with him or he's not after a serious thing. Thats what i think it is anyway. One of my two favourite songs ever.