Flustered Duck
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Flustered Duck
@flusteredduck.bsky.social
240 followers 160 following 1.6K posts
Poetry fan, avid reader, provides editing and self-publishing services as well as transcription, based in Albany, Western Australia.
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The medieval peacock was said to have flesh so hard it didn't rot and could hardly be cooked in a fire or digested by the liver. This lovely peacock is from a 1425 version of "De rerum naturis". #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #peacock #peacocks
A smug-looking bird with a long blue neck and blue head is facing towards the left. It has a head-dress of three black stalks with green buds. Its body is green and it has a gloriously long green tail with blue "eyes" trailing down the blank margin of the page on the right. The tail is fringed with hair-like red and green feathers. Its visible folded wing is black with a wide red trim and it has breech-like feathered upper legs and three-toed black feet. It is shown against a gilt background in a red frame with black gothic text above and below it. Image from Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 291 [De rerum naturis], folio 102r.
January 19, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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#poetry #poetrycommunity #poetrylovers #poetrytwitter
Digging Out of Winter by Jeffrey Alfier
Outside the bedroom window of the house he and my mother have shared since ’68, my father watches the post-Christmas blizzard build in the wind’s high octaves. Gathered in the kitchen and dressed f…
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January 19, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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What story goes with this week's writing prompt of an intriguing self-portrait by Lotte Laserstein (1898-1993)? #writingprompts #writinglife #writingtips #artworks #lottelaserstein
An androgynous figure with short dark hair in a large white smock with a paintbrush holds a tabby cat on its lap as it looks at the viewer with an unsmiling querying expression. Painting equipment is scattered in the room around the figure and a city landscape is visible in the window behind it. Image by Lotte Laserstein (1898-1993) from Art UK.
January 18, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Moonstruck by Brian Con Penton
O beware of that witch the Moon she hungers the world, pricking out a million palates of new desire in mouths that never were dry for want of lips and a tongue to suck the marrow from a kiss. She g…
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January 18, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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"All the Blood I'll Bleed" by Lanne Garrett is a fantasy featuring a woman who sacrifices over and over until she is put in the position of having to sacrifice the one she loves. #bookrecommendations #tbrlist #fantasy #allthebloodillbleed #lannegarrett
Book cover.
January 17, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Nth Wave by Tracy Ryan
This time around they say, we won’t be at loggerheads, we’ve understood you can’t measure up, we’ll do maths & spelling and that’s enough, afternoons, we’ll make cake, play in the yard, there’s…
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January 17, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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Let Jumble Publishing and Editing (jumblepublishing.com) handle your editing and self-publishing after all your hard work of writing.
Image: Narkiz Bunin (1856-1912) #jumblepublishing #publishing #selfpublishing #editing #narkizbunin
A heavily bearded man in a blue military style uniform with one chevron on his arm is seated on the ground writing on a notepad. He wears long black boots and a peaked cap. He has a messenger bag slung over his back and has gloves sticking out of his pocket beside it. He has a red epaulette and an upstanding collar. He is alone on the page with no scenery or furniture. Image by Narkiz Bunin (1856-1912) from Wikimedia Commons.
January 16, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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The Many Worlds Interpretation of Classical Mechanics by Kenton K. Yee
Everything that can happen does. She leaves work early as a crackhead jumps off a bus. A drunk runs a red light, barely. She leaves work early. Her car doors did not lock. A drunk runs a red light,…
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January 16, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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Medieval geese were valued for their culinary and medicinal uses as well as their medical uses, although their exact medicinal uses were not specified. This image is from an 1190-1200 version of "Aviarium" by Hugh of Fouilloy (c1096-1172). #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #goose #geese
A blue goose with orange webbed feet and beak is walking towards the right in a square lozenge with a yellowish background on a manuscript page. The lozenge has text around it—a blue "clamor" on the top, a red "anseris" on the right side, a blue "accus?mo" on the bottom and a red "fratris" on the left side. Image from Grootseminarie Brugge, MS. 89/54 [Ter Duinen Aviary], folio 75v.
January 15, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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The Two Banksias by Myra Morris
“Roses will flourish here,” they said. “But first dig in a little bit of clay!” I dreamed of roses glowing dark and red Against, the ashes of a burnt-out summer day, And tossed the dream away And w…
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January 15, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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Most medieval geese illustrations are easily recognisable as in this image from a 1457 German version of "De universo" or "De rerum naturis". #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #goose #geese
A thickly outlined goose waddling towards the left. It has red and brown cross-hatching on its wings and brown lines across its body. Its drumsticks are prominent and it has very red legs with feet that look more clawed than webbed. It has a shut red beak and its black eye has a thin brown ring around it. It looks peeved. Image from Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Cod.theol.et.phil.fol.45 [De universo], folio 107r.
January 14, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Still Waiting by Claire Watson
We were standing side-by-side in the Alice Springs Vehicle Registry: of equal height yet different skin. A man breezed through the door and asked me, ‘Are you waiting?’ I shook my head and he joine…
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January 14, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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Medieval geese were said to come in two types—domestic geese which "clamoured" in villages and "maintained" themselves with their beaks and wild geese which flew high in the sky in orderly formations. Image from the Lutterell Psalter (c1325-1340). #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #goose #geese
A large goose with a brown upper body and white feathered belly and bright orange webbed feet and beak is grazing on grass facing the right. Two smaller geese, also white bellied but with a white band across their brown upper bodies are grazing in front of it, facing left. They have bright orange webbed feet and beaks. A red and white striped trefoil flower with a blue stem is shown behind the pair of geese. Image from British Library, Additional MS 42130 [The Lutterell Psalter], folio 19r.
January 13, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Frances of the Cadillac by Laura Van Prooyen
Under her tongue, there was a story. In her mouth, nails. Frances hammered license plates to the back wall of her garage. There hang the years that sunk like a foot in loose soil. That rusted like …
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January 13, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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This week's medieval beast is the goose. Geese were said to keep a night watch by cackling at any sort of disturbance and were therefore often used as guards as in this image from the Aberdeen Bestiary (c1200). #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #goose #geese
A blue goose with white highlights is waddling to the right with its long neck curved downwards at a right angle. It is looking down and its orange beak is open. It has a fierce air and seems to be hissing. It has two stumpy orange legs and three-pointed webbed feet. Behind it, a white goose with orange highlights is also moving towards the right with an open orange beak and fierce look. It too seems to be hissing and also seems somewhat bigger than the blue goose. They are shown in a circular lozenge on a gilt background in a square frame. The frame is blue and red with white curlicues. Image from Aberdeen University Library, Univ. Lib. MS 24 [Aberdeen Bestiary (Second Family)], folio 53r.
January 12, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Migrant Is Not a Metaphor by Cynthia Dewi Oka
or the burning of possible sanctuaries. Though where he emerged, blue-skulled, gowned by his mother’s aloe, a canyon lifted its eye to the sun. He shouldn’t have been. Like wolves in the white-face…
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January 12, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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A painting by Ludolf de Jongh (1616–1679) for today's writing prompt with an androgynous child and a very cute dog. I would probably write from the painter's viewpoint for this one but where is your story's focus going to be? #writingprompts #writinglife #writingtips #ludolfdejongh #artworks
A richly dressed androgynous blonde child with its hair covered by a white cap decorated with red ribbons. A brown and white spaniel is sitting upright beside the child. There is a black witch-style hat behind the pair and a cut rose in front of them. The child looks pleased but the dog looks unhappy.
January 11, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Tassiopeia by Kaveh Akbar
don’t ask someone if they’re afraid of dying        it’s tasteless and they’ll always lie        instead ask if they’ve ever been chained up in a dungeon        time yellowstaining their skin      …
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January 11, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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"The First Law of the Bush" by Geoff Parkes is a mystery set in a remote town where a grieving widow hires a private investigator to find out if her husband's death was accident, suicide or something else. #bookrecommendations #tbrlist #thefirstlawofthebush #geoffparkes #mystery
Book cover.
January 10, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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When the Wind Blows by Rose Auslander
& your fences fall & birds nest in your petunias & your daughter walks into your words & you lose her there when lightning burns a path in a random paragraph & your body refuses…
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January 10, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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Let Jumble Publishing and Editing (jumblepublishing.com/) deal with your editing and self-publishing after all your hard work of writing.
Image: Federico Zandomeneghi (1841-1917). #jumblepublishing #publishing #selfpublising #editing #federicozandomeneghi
A woman in a spotted white dress with a blue belt is sitting with her back to the viewer writing at a table covered by a trailing fringed orange cloth. The room around her has a red patterned paper on the wall, a shut greenish door and a multi-coloured sofa with a wooden trim. She is sitting on a dark wooden chair with a brightly coloured cushion. She has long honey-coloured hair resting on the wide square collar of her dress. There is a piece of paper and ink bottle on the table. Image by Federico Zandomeneghi (1841-1917) from Wikimedia Commons.
January 9, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Highfields Fantasia by Carol Leeming
In Highfields terraced houses concertinaed off-street or pallisaded, all night-wrapped agent orange haloed with furtive stars at play behind patinas of trees, curlicues of muezzin calls loop into a…
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January 9, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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Medieval swans were eaten, particularly as part of a Christmas feast. This swan is from a bestiary dated to 1226-1250. #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #swans #swan
A white swan is swimming towards the right with a fish in its red-brown beak. Its wings are half-raised and its legs are tucked beneath it and visible through the water. It has a dark almond-shaped eye, a long curving neck and a fierce expression. It is shown in a decorated red and blue frame against a gilt background with green-blue water beneath the bird. Image from MS. Bodley 764, Folio 65v.
January 8, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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If I Could Write a Poem by Richard Castles
If I could write a poem It would open with a cloud A wild splash of daffodils By lake and glade bee-loud If I could write a poem I would pour a starry sky O’er a snow-iced cottage In a wood where o…
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January 8, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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Medieval swans were thought to have medicinal uses for both lung congestion and spleen issues with the liver supposed to heal the lungs and its lungs good for curing spleen ailments. This swan is from a c1350 version of "Der Naturen Bloeme". #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #swans #swan
A white swan with very large black webbed feet and thick white legs is standing firmly looking to the right between stylised trees against a gilt background in a decorated blue and red frame. The swan has a long curved neck and a black beak and seems to be looking upwards shyly. Image from Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KB, KA 16, fol. 79v.
January 7, 2026 at 2:00 AM