Description

The Persimmon Tree Carol, in 21 parts, is an homage to the poet’s father, and in it we find more new characters (and dogs) and narratives from Paul’s Hill, most centered around his parents and some stretching back before Shelby’s birth, all detailed depictions of a lost kind of living that used to be common all across eastern North Carolina. Possums intrude, hunting ’em for a dollar a hide, and cigars, and a barren landscape of “tenant houses, ryefields, hog parlors, graveyards” brings us bleakly up-to-date.