The mountain road brick-red of dust laced with lizard tracks, coming up through the peach orchard, hot, windless, cloistral in a silence of no birds save one vulture hung in the smokeblue void of the sunless mountainside, rocking on the high updrafts, and the road turning and gated with bullbriers waxed and green, and the green cadaver grin sealed in the murky waters of the peach pit, slimegreen skull with newts coiled in the eyesockets and a wig of moss.
The description vividly paints a scene of a desolate mountain road, characterized by its dusty, brick-red hue and the tracks of lizards. As the road winds through a peach orchard, it conveys a sense of oppressive heat and stillness, broken only by the presence of a solitary vulture in the sky. The atmosphere seems heavy with silence, evoking an eerie solitude in the absence of bird songs. The imagery of bullbriers framing the road adds to the sense of enclosure and isolation.
The portrayal of the peach pit's murky waters introduces a darker element to the scene, with references to decay and death. The description of the ‘green cadaver grin’ and the ‘slimegreen skull’ infuses the landscape with a grotesque natural quality, suggesting a cycle of life and death intertwined. The newts in the eye sockets and the mossy wig enhance the sense of neglect and the passage of time, creating a haunting visual that reflects the themes of decay and the relentless drive of nature within McCarthy's work.
