Lyric discussion by thecoldpart 

Cover art for Anna Begins lyrics by Counting Crows

From Adam's comments on the song, including on Storytellers

“It's about denial -- how far you'll go to deny that something’s really happening because it's too complicated, too terrifying, too difficult. It's about all the things you go through trying to, sort of squash your feelings. to sort of shut it down, and how much you can hurt other people and yourself by doing that. The people in the song are just continuously telling themselves they don't feel what they do feel, until the end when it's too late, and then they realize what they were really, really not ready for was, you know, never being able to see each other again.”