Fire is the poem's central image, and it uses it to describe a damaging encounter between a man and a woman. He walks in smoothly and smiles, but the details around him are all about burning: candle wax, smoke, scorched paper, charred marshmallows. Even his touch "licks" at her shoulder like a flame, and he keeps "consuming at every opportunity." The poem seems to suggest that something innocent in her, her "newness," has already been lost, and that he is part of that loss.
The speaker watches her more than she speaks. She smiles back, but her tight lips hide pain that is still raw. The final lines carry the real weight: she says nothing and burns quietly, while inside she is screaming. The mood is tense and uneasy. The sweet, almost cozy images, like summer marshmallows, make the harm feel more unsettling, because the surface looks calm while the suffering stays hidden.