The Hot Comb
by Pamela Ndumbi
The hot comb— a tyrant, a fiend, a foe.
A little girl obeys, raw-scalped, head down.
Weight shifts between pillows on the ground.
A ritual, relentless, forged in woe.
Iron fist; unforgiving stroke.
Dragging through roots that never asked to be bound.
Head-flinching, clock-watching. Each curl drowned, each curl plowed.
Scalp-throbbing, tear-dropping. Unravels her with its ruthless poke.
The heat recedes; her pain resigns.
The comb abandoned, annulled, asleep.
Nappy, kinky, her strands redefined.
Her coils return, a gentle liberty.
She reclaims her natural design.
Each curl, a testament. Each curl, a verity.
Pamela Ndumbi is a Zambian-born Congolese-Canadian teacher, poet, and musician. She discovered her love for writing in middle school English class, where storytelling let her breathe life into childhood memories. Through her work, Pamela hopes to connect people, trusting in the power of words to evoke vulnerability, raw emotion, and shared humanity.
“The Hot Comb” is a Petrarchan sonnet that illustrates both the beauty and brutality that come with having 4C hair. Many Black women know all too well the feelings of pain, panic, pleasure, and the pressure of shrinking ourselves and conforming our hair to society. This poem is an ode to the shape-shifting nature of Black hair and the blessing that comes from embracing it.