Shades of Junk

Junk in school
Junk on the street
Junk is lurking
every place
that people meet
There’s nowhere safe
Can you stand the heat?
Best be cool
and fast on your feet
Junk that cheats
and is hard to beat

Junk piling up
in every place
Landfills full
of fetid waste
A natural habitat
for the human race?
Cockroaches and rats
are where junk’s at
Junk is ‘it’
in cyberspace
Junk all across
the internet
Breadcrumbing junk
Catfishing a flunk
junk that’s funk
gone kaput
and goes kerplunk
What the junk!?

The relic
from a Junk museum
drunk on junk
upon a rickety podium
giving it a tweet
talking the junk
Hellbent and spiked
like a Cosbied drink
The pulpit subterranean
taking us to the brink
where molten junk
is ever flowing
Junk out of sight
Junk micturating
from a great height
upon the shuffling throng
Where junk makes right
you just can’t go wrong
Junk opinions
everybody’s got one
From the cradle
to the grave
nowhere to hide
junk in fashion
and worn with pride
Falorn and torn
by fleeting passions
With style or grace
junk just happens
Junk calls the tune
Junk is your fortune
Junk’s in your face

Junk ‘n jail
leaving a messy trail
All too grim
and beyond the pale
A mysterious chunk
of Alien Junk
Human beings
being abducted
and locked in the trunk
by some or other
cosmic punk
orchestrating the junk
Like being conducted
somewhere ’round midnight
by a felonious monk
holding junk tight
Junk that floats
where hopes are sunk
Dangerous junk
Junk home grown
Junk imported
The meaning of Junk
is hotly debated
Junk being poured over
where trees once grew
May the junk
be ever with you

Junk on T.V.
Junk on credit
Get the latest model
You won’t regret it
The junkie celebrity
gives a guarantee
And all that extra junk
That comes for free!
Humans forsaken
charity forgotten
Has junk become
the greedy reality
of all things rotten?
Where junk
strikes quickly
without mercy
and conscience free
Stay tuned in
Be tuned out
to a place where pity
walks the plank
in the Big Crapple
that Big Sewer City

Junk in body
like crumbs in bed
Junk being pumped
from heart to head
Voices howling
Words are broken
Truth is scarce
and seldom spoken
Junk that grows
Junk that flows
Junk underfoot
and between your toes
The sky is smoking
The Earth is choking
That chemical fog
even a junkyard dog
can tell by the smell
of a cosmos combusting
Just follow your nose
You don’t need
no garbage man
to know which way
the junk wind blows

Junk in space
till the end of days
Space junk orbiting
through a toxic haze
Islands of platic
floating out of place
Four horsemen riding
Amazing disgrace
is soon approaching
The harbingers
of grand funk junk
Is it ever too late?
Is all hope sunk?
What is the real deal?
Who is the real thing?
Is it ever too late
to start recycling?

Junk
that prevaricates
Junk
that oscillates
Ophidian junk
that dances in the dark
like wriggling snakes
Junk glorified
Justice falsified
On the hunt for junk
Mall shoppers
never satisfied
As rivers
of effluent delivers
all that glitters
Palava Amanhã
So junk gets richer
upon a golden trail
of plastic from China
Yet the more get poorer
Like piles
of junk mail
thrown out
with the litter
Junk is in the eye
of the garbage disposer
Junk dropping bombs
across the border
A world of junk
well out of order

Chasing
the junk
of a golden dragon
the Junk Man commeth
ever so charming
With the bonds of junk
that he’s been selling
Junk jewellery hanging
from the neck
of the Bling King
I get by
and a little high
on the sweet junk
he’s been pushing
Too cool and cruel
for Sunday School
Mr. Mojo rising
Lawyers lying
Bankers swindling
Big business bribing
Integrity dwindling
Honesty disappearing
Politicians high flying
taking the golden pass
Taking the secretary
on junkets first class
The need to exceed
with the largesse of greed
For whom the junk tolls
hell’s doorbells
will soon to be ringing
Where there is life
there be junk … But
is it ever too late
to start recycling?

The Juggernaut of Junk
expands and exploits
That gravy train runs
on the crap it exports
Man’s inhumanity
now a globalised sport
Even the food you eat
has become a toxic rort
So feed your children
a wholesome snack
of processed junk
All poly-saturated
and highly adulterated
Yet tasty like a chemical
that artificial muck

Corporate junk
never satiated
Junk that does a bunk
Junk venerated
True love forged
Junk engorged
Fifty shades of junk
highly overrated
And only if your bored
To misuse the measure
of pain and pleasure
in the refuse of abuse
Some philistine
of predatory crime
trashing a treasure
Junk indeed
in need of a spank
Like a Weinstein
doing time
Junk has no love
left in the tank
Junk riding shotgun
on a garbage truck
Junk locked and loaded
in the vault of a bank

Junk on display
Junk on parade
With cash to splash
the rash and the trash
getting their junk waylaid
giving it a bash
on a garbage run
till the rising sun
The junk of your choice
custom made
All junk
great and small
short and tall
for it’s a hard junk
a-gonna fall

Junk is telling you
what to say
and what to think
Like junk that stinks
of spite and envy
As all that elitist
and most haughty
post-modest poetry
The ostentatious
and pretentious
revelling in negativity
Those bitter little pills
that spill aimlessly
into a monochrome sea
Only to sink into
the endless darkness
of grandiose self-pity
As black is the new junk
So please
colour my universe
in positive creativity
And a verse or two
of true honesty

Junk is being sunk
into your personal space
since the deal went down
with a fall from grace
junk is running amok
and is on your case
Truth that is pure
very hard to find
in a pile of used waste
Yet even in the darkness
there is always
a loving trace
Reaching out
and shining past
all shades of junk
from the first
and the worst
to the very last
Life is for recycling
and riding high
with the King
So skip the garbage tip
and make it a blast 😎

~ by David B. Redpath © 2018-19

“For his sake I have suffered
the loss of all things and count
them as rubbish, in order that
I might gain Christ.”

~ a man named Paul

Photography:
Alexandra Armeta-Redpath ©2019
Linda & David B. Redpath ©2019

162 thoughts on “Shades of Junk”

  3. Sort and sift
    Cross the rift
    Between what was
    And what is
    Find the worth
    Left from dearth
    Show some love
    To our only Earth
    Break the mirror
    Seeing clearer
    Morning light
    Growing nearer
    Through the haze
    Sunshine days
    How I long to
    Count the ways

    Liked by 8 people

    Reply

  4. I remember a few years ago watching a music video where the female singer was shaking her booty and singing,
    “I’ve got junk, junk, junk,
    Junk in my trunk…”
    No doubt that’s the song Earth Mother Gaia 🌏 is singing these days.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

      2. That’s how the English
        made junkies of the Chinese.
        The British East India Company
        made them hop onto the junk.
        Any more ‘banging the gong’
        and ‘chasing the dragon’
        and their boat would’ve sunk.

        Liked by 3 people

    1. I have been told,
      by Betty Ford,
      that I do have an
      addictive personality.
      When I modestly
      thanked her
      she said most sternly
      that it wasn’t meant
      as a compliment !?
      Thanks, Dreamwords, for your
      most complimentary comment.

      Liked by 4 people

      Reply

  12. David, what a fantastic commentary! Yes, junk is the byproduct of a greedy reality. Junk as a commodity is every day trader’s dream, while it should be a nightmare. Thankfully China’s Melamine is out of the bag, toxic non-edible disguised as edible, shame on the minds that think this sort of junk up, instead of investing brainpower towards a solution. Your words are poignant and on target. Terrific poem! ! Mia

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. Thank you muchly, Mia …
      gracious lady, and fellow wayfarer.
      Yes, I have tried,
      but in a world coated
      in cyanamide and formaldehyde,
      there is nowhere
      to safely hide.
      We have already the solutions
      to all this planet’s
      man made problems.
      Tis only the resolve
      to use them
      that is sorely lacking.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  14. Wow, I have no words, still holding my breath… this poem is magnificiently eloquent and original, a jewel of beautifully crafted words to be read aloud at an open mic or to be performed as poetry slam for its musicality ressonates everywhere. What a great tribute to junk. At the same time, there is poignant criticism of massive waste production in today’s world and its terrible consequences for humanity. T.S.Eliot wrote “The Waste Land”, one of my favorite poems, and you, in a totally different style, have written a modern version of our current “Waste Land”. The way you have put these beautiful words together slightly reminds me (of course in a totally different way) of the poets of the Beat Generation. Your eloquence and social criticism slightly resembles “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg. As for the play on words your poem reminds me of a series of three poems by Jack Kerouac included in a book called Scattered Poems: “Fie My Fum”, “Pull My Daisy”(first and second version).

    These lines of the poem have especially touched me:

    “Junk that floats
    where hopes are sunk”

    “So junk gets richer
    upon a golden trail
    of plastic from China
    Yet the more get poorer”

    “Junk dropping bombs
    across the border
    A world of junk
    well out of order”

    And I love the double rhymes here:

    “With cash to splash
    the rash and the trash”

    I am sorry for this very long comment, but, as you see, I am really fascinated by this poem.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Thank you very much, Marta,
      for your most gracious comments.
      I was raised on the works of
      the Beat Poets (I guess you
      can’t hide your upbringing)
      and I’m pleased and flattered
      to be even a mere reminiscence.
      We stand on the shoulders
      of literary giants.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

  15. Really an awesome list poem! I love to read and write these myself. Wow! You covered the whole universe of Junk!
    Especially, loved these lines:
    “Junk on T.V.
    Junk on credit
    Get the latest model
    You won’t regret it
    The junkie celebrity
    gives a guarantee
    And all that extra junk
    that comes for free
    Humans forsaken
    charity forgotten
    Has junk become
    the greedy reality?”

    Bravo, My Friend! So well done!
    Thanks also for all your visits and views to my site. I really appreciate you spending your precious time there and hope you will continue to find my words worthy!!
    Chuck

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. Thank you very much, Charles.
      This was originally a much
      longer ‘shopping list’.
      I just about filled an exercise
      book with a draft full of junk.
      Had to throw most of it out,
      but then that’s the way of junk.
      And thanks for using your
      ‘there luctant poet’ site as a
      platform for wordpress writer’s
      to meet (still not sure what
      ‘luctant’ means?).

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. A great piece! Yes, I guess there are different names and views – some call it editing, purging, dumping etc. LOL!
        I so appreciate reading your work and your consistent support of my blog! Ha! You mean “Reluctant?” I have in the past and sometimes even now when reading and reblogging the works of others “Wonder about my words??”
        Thanks so much, David!!! 👍👍✨😊

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks Charles.
      My wife tells me I’m punching
      above my weight division?
      Trying my best to become
      a true Minimalist.
      As a coincidence, we are
      currently clearing out a
      hoard of junk, just to make
      room for more incoming.
      No idea where it comes from?

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  21. Now that was a lot junk you wrote about, a thoroughly great piece of rubbish, and I really enjoyed this bit of refuse.
    “Landfills full
    of fetid waste
    A natural habitat
    for the human race?
    Cockroaches and rats”

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

      10. Yes !!, I’m back, no more blinking blinking, I’m fixed, a new second-hand hand computer, all my musics back, 10 hours of the Beatles, I’m over the moon and back,… back on track.

        Liked by 2 people

  22. I just had to laugh. “…drunk on junk…”, “…fifty shades of junk…” “…junk, between your toes…” Loved ‘The Doors’ referral.

    I wish I was a poet. I just ain’t got it. This is the best I can do:
    “Good food
    Good meat
    Good God
    Let’s eat”

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. The politics of division,
      festering within the cultural
      baggage of tribal superstition.
      We all need a love resurrection
      to break free of opinionated
      disunity.
      Preconception is the
      proud and loud mother
      of Miss Conception.
      Thanks Dorianna, for reading,
      and commenting.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

    1. I like to dig deep.
      I’ve been to Europe a couple
      of times. It’s a big trip for us
      Down Under. Planning to go
      back for much longer next
      time, go good to get tips of
      where to go from seasoned
      travellers.
      I’ll pursue the purchasing
      of happiness on WordPress.
      Thanks, Léa

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. I never got to Oz. A few blogging friends there but I haven’t ventured that far. The closest I got was Thailand and Vietnam which I loved. However, France has been home since I arrived 11 years ago. I shall look forward to something Orwellian… Thank you David

        Liked by 3 people

      2. I got to spend a week in Paris,
        staying at Montmartre. Just
        long enough to visit the Louvre,
        Espace Dali (of course), Notre-Dame, and wander in wonder
        about. But unfortunately, not long enough to really take it all in.
        Trekking to India and Nepal
        in January. Hoping to get to
        Vietnam soon after.
        Thailand is very nice for a
        holiday.
        Australia is so vast, best to
        allow plenty of time, and travel
        with someone who knows the
        terrain.

        Liked by 2 people

      3. Ah, a tiny taste of Paris. Delicious but you haven’t been to the real France. And if you are into Dali, I am but an hour and a half from his birthplace, Figueres, Spain. There are two museums of his work one dedicated to the jewelry he created and not to be believed! You should visit other parts of France, we have much to offer.

        Liked by 3 people

      4. I’m hoping to see more of
        the French countryside next
        time. And more of Italy and
        Spain.
        I did visit Dali & Gala”s house
        in Figueres. Like Disneyland
        on Acid! Was planning to go
        to his beach home on the coast
        but ran out of time. We were
        there mid summer, when
        Barcelona is in peak season,
        and saw the Dali gallery there.
        Planning to go back in Spring
        or Autumn when it’s quieter.
        Did get to the Picasso Museums
        in Barcelona, and Malaga.

        Liked by 1 person

  33. it’s destroying
    the way some keep toying
    with our minds
    and with our hearts.
    what’s the answer,
    where to start?
    it’s also contagious
    proper outrageous
    but it can’t stop us
    from being courageous.
    love send out,
    belief maintain.
    the junk goes back
    to earth again.
    lotus born
    of dark and rot
    bloom in my mind,
    my spirit besot!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  35. We are a wasteful species who had the potential for much more. It’s as though we saw a crossroads or a fork in the road and chose the wrong way. Along with our capability for wisdom we also encompass the capability for stupidity at the same level.
    Thank you for not failing me and filling this with pictures of you ❤️

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. I find my only hope is now in a
      higher grand plan. For man is
      proving to be, collectively, a bit
      of a hopeless dope. I do hope
      I’m wrong, but all I hear are the
      tears of a tragic sad song 💔

      The person taking off the
      make-up isn’t me, Sweet Poesy.
      It’s actually lovely my daughter
      in law, Alexandra.
      But yes, I did slip some pics of
      myself in, being a self absorbed
      narcissist 😎

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. And it just grows if you stow it.
      If I could go back in time, I’d
      stop the environmental crime
      of the man who invented plastic.
      And tell all the world 🌎 to buy
      their food in brown paper bags
      and carry it in a straw basket.
      And to drink water from the tap,
      for we only have one planet 😎

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. As always David, you make excellent points and with a flair uniquely yours. Recycle, minimise the junk, pack the basket on your bike, guard your martini. All good mottos. When I read your poems in my mind, it’s always with my best Aussie accent, which only enhances the effect.

        Always careful with my martinis David.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Yes Rachel, I do have an Aussie
        accent. A bit like Mel Gibson
        after he’s had a few drinks with
        Bill Cosby. That’s despite being
        a New Yorker, from Long Island,
        originally. Raised in Australia 🇦🇺
        where the junk is much cheaper 😎

        Liked by 2 people

      3. LOL But why, why would he have drinks with Bill Cosby, it hurts my head to even go there, or maybe the drinks hurt their heads, more likely.

        That’s a pretty fun kind of accent, like slurred Aussie/American, I can nearly smell the beer 😂. New York to Australia, that’s quite the shift!

        Liked by 2 people

      6. Sadly no. But coincidentally
        Cleaver Greene did represent me,
        the last time I was in Sydney.
        A night out in Kings Cross that got
        a bit out of hand (by court order,
        I’m prohibited from talking about it).
        The kind policeman gave me
        Cleaver’s card, saying …
        “You’re going to need a lawyer,
        son. I know a really cheap one.”
        I got off with a firm spanking 😎

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Perhaps they should do it at home,
      Graham. Much cheaper, and
      environmentally friendly, to just
      climb into the kitchen freezer 🥶
      My personal dilemma whilst living
      in such a wasteful toxic consumer
      culture, is when in Rome can you
      avoid doing as the Romans do?
      Perhaps the barbarians knew better?

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

    1. Walkin’ on a dusty road
      in the countryside of ease
      I heard a song driftin’ on
      the gently blowin’ breeze.
      “Sunshine through the Autumn,
      sweet snow to the Spring
      Corn by the water
      of an old mill stream,
      and you give me all,
      you give me all.”
      A barrow pushed
      by a little man
      came rollin’ from the west
      He sang a song
      as he stepped along
      until we drew abreast
      “Well hello there my friend,
      I see you’re on the road here
      just like me.
      Why don’t we stop
      and rest a while
      and I’ll boil a pot of tea?”
      He said his name
      was Simple Ben
      but not what I’d believe.
      Christened by
      the way he thought
      and not the way he lived
      ” I’ve seen the best and worst
      that we have here on our earth.
      And finally decided
      on the things
      that I get worth. ”
      I asked if he had seen
      the great jets
      fly across the sky?
      He said he’d seen
      the smallest bird
      learnin’ how to fly
      Have you seen the bridges
      stretched across the bays?
      I’ve seen the smallest fish
      alive dyin’ in the haze.
      Have you seen
      the massive buildin’s
      reached towards the sun?
      I’ve seen the fields of barronness
      from the work that man has done
      What about the dams and weirs
      that feed the countryside?
      I’ve seen the brownness
      of the grass when the
      dams and weirs run
      “Just give me sunshine
      through the Autumn,
      sweet snow to the Spring
      Corn by the water
      of an old mill stream,
      and you give me all,
      you give me all.”

      ~ Simple Ben (John J. Francis)

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  43. It really does feel like we’re drowning in an ocean of junk. I don’t think the totality of the damage could be better expressed – so bravo for following through and not taking shortcuts (I actually read through twice for the rhythm and for some reason heard in the background “Tambourine Man” but of course, Hard Rain is actually closer)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I usually find inspiration in a
      Dylan song, JT. I was listening
      to ‘Everything is Broken’, when
      this poem came along. So the
      rhythm was stolen from him 😎

      “Broken hands
      on broken ploughs,
      Broken treaties,
      broken vows,
      Broken pipes,
      broken tools,
      People bending
      broken rules
      Hound dog howling,
      bull frog croaking,
      Everything is broken.”
      ~ Bob Dylan

      Thanks for the double reading 🙏

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  45. I love the ending especially and the photos are awesome! Did you know, David, that a very famous guy loved your poem so much he went back in time and changed a word in his book, and then his last name, to match it? Amazing!
    “You are not your job, you’re not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You are not your f..king khakis. You are all singing, all dancing junk of the world.”
    -Chuck Palahnijunk
    That’s what I heard. =)
    ♥.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. If you heard that word, Niki, it must be
      true. And truer words never rewritten
      with the hindsight of a Time Machine.
      Thanks for hoping aboard my floating
      Junk 🙏 I’m just a bit worried it might
      get sunk in the Bay of Hong Kong 😎

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. You’re so good at this off-the-cuff responses. I think that’s part of the reason I comment just to see what you’ll come up with. =) Aren’t Time Machines awesome? I’ve only managed to temporarily borrow one but it was a hoot!
        ♥.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. I have had the pleasure of temporal
        reversal, Niki. But the Doctor kicked
        me off the the Tardis for going back
        to 1980 and buying shares in Apple.
        Fortunately I made a fortune 🍏=💵 and have no worries for the future 😎

        Liked by 1 person

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