A single orange feather floats above an opening of warm dawn light in a dark cloudy sky.

Original artwork, not a still

Jitterbug Perfume · 1984

Tom Robbins

It is to erase the fixed smiles of sleeping couples that Satan trained roosters to crow at five in the morning.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Robbins builds a playful, mock-mythic explanation for something mundane, imagining Satan himself training roosters just to break up the peaceful, smiling sleep of couples at dawn. It's absurd on purpose, turning an annoying wake-up call into a tiny act of cosmic mischief.

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