My tongue is stretched out of my mouth like a snail in a hurry. I’m staring at a single birthday candle on my second birthday cake.
Fire hurts only if it has time to burn. It’s the reason I can run my hand over a tiki torch at a barbecue and not feel anything but my heart. Christ they were impressed.

If you pinch a flame on a wax candle, the wick is not enough to carry any real heat and the flame will be out before it can burn you. Your skin will be fine.

The most sensitive parts of the body are the fingertips, the clitoris and the tongue.

I do not have a clitoris.

I slather my tongue against my chin. Move towards it.

All this makes since. I know this will work. No pain. No permanent loss of taste buds or enamel. The tongue is the fastest healing part of the body. No, shit, the eye.

I can feel the tiny fire warm the stretched sides of my mouth; on the tiny blackheads I recently squirted out like toothpaste.

I need to do this. It makes since. Like shooting an empty gun against your chest.

I feel my mouth warm as I inch towards the second, oil filled, sugar covered, glucose yeast I’ve bought in two days. The fire is now.

That was the day I found out my mouthwash is flammable.