Don't Wanna Go Lyrics

Lyric discussion by jthaspell 

Cover art for Don't Wanna Go lyrics by Lumineers, The

I think that this song might be about a young boy/man (late teen/early twenty something) that attempts to take his own life by cutting himself. His sister comes in and discovers him him bleeding out and she's kneeling next to him and there's "blood around her". She calls for help, he's saying he's "going numb" and that he's "too young" and they are going to the hospital at the end of the first verse.

The bridge, "suits were made for men not boys" shows that she thinks of her younger brother as a boy rather than a man still. "This faith that we fake is a choice" might mean the faith in God that people fake, realizing in the end that no god would let this fate become of a young man. The chorus line, "I don't wanna go" is the guy crying and professing he's actually not ready to go out of this world, he regrets his fateful decision. He then says, "I don't wanna see, I don't wanna be there, if it's the last time." Saying that if this is the end, he doesn't want to be in a hospital and doesn't want to his his sister completely broken.

Next his sister is with him at the hospital holding her brothers hand saying she's his "mothers stand-in". She's in a sudden panic like an addict with drugs, she's without her beloved brother. Then I think the brother might be describing his feelings when he says the moment "runs you over". The emotions that led him to his fateful decision overcame him and in a way he couldn't control them. He still doesn't want anyone to "say it's over" even though...he knows it is.

The bridge and chorus then repeat. Suits, as in the one to be buried in, were not made for boys. He cries "I don't wanna go" because he knows he is going and that he doesn't even "want to see her (his sister) if it's the last time" meaning he wants to mentally pretend like he'll see her again so he doesn't need to see her right now, especially if she's completely overcome with shock and grief.