Consider the Junkyard Dog

Poem of the Week

Happy Sunday. Let’s hang out, do poetry, and have a little fun today, huh? Here is a brand new one.

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Consider the Junkyard Dog 


born into a savage world of metal and rust. the first breath is a gift. the fight for survival begins before the second. the ones that make it past the first days must learn to run before they can walk. 

domesticated pups are fed well and kept safe. out in the junkyards they learn to live on scraps. there is no safety. even the king of the heap must be prepared at all times to prove that they are still worthy.

those that make it to adolescence have already paid a price. when there is only so much food you must eat or be eaten. there are no neon green tennis balls to chase. there are no first birthday parties with cake.

in adulthood the pecking order is so important that many die because of it. it is so important that it can turn sister against brother. there is no time to analyze why when it’s live or die. even the ragged cross-eyed mutts snarling in the shadows are called upon annually to defend their existence. 

the top dog is not determined by gender. confident often goes farther than tough. smart is as equally important as any other trait. longevity requires luck as much as skill.

in the junkyard the dogs live half as long as their indoor cousins. survival of the fittest exacts a heavy toll. healing comes slow when there is no access to medicine. wounds become scars that add up fast. 

anyone that has ever lived in poverty understands.

©Dan Denton 2026

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That’s a new one that I think is good. Hope you do, too.

I got to ride along with my partner to a doctor’s appointment an hour away, the other day, and we stopped at two thrift stores. Here is the haul.

I don’t know anything about The Fire Within, but the back cover says the writer is like a French version of F.Scott Fitzgerald, and for $1 I took the chance. The other books are familiar writers. Leo Buscaglia wrote one of the top five most life changing books I’ve ever read, so I’m really excited to read this $2 find. Total for all four books…$7.50, or the cost of 1.8 gallons of gas. Bet the books take me farther. And they don’t require liability insurance.

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Hey, since that first poem wasn’t the happiest, no matter how true it is, and since I want to give the Universe more happy than sad, here is a second poem. This one first appeared this past January in the Tix to Midnight Vol. 4, an annual anthology that Pure Sleeze Press puts out. It is here in the wild for the first time ever.

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Unsolicited 

don’t be a dirty dog 
keep it buttoned up will you?
don’t be that guy 
that gets a whispered reputation 

it seems like we should
all know this by now 
I’d hoped that we would 
do better as a society 

but hope without logic 
is only a delusion 
and it appears that this public service announcement 
is just as timely as ever 

no matter how proud you are of it 
and no matter how excited 
you are to show it off 
don’t be a fucking pig 

you think anyone 
wants to see that filth? 
trust me when I say 
that everyone we know 
has seen their share of them 

so keep your hands in your pockets
and your unsolicited poems to yourself 

©Dan Denton 2024

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Including this poem, I had three others and a short story appear in that anthology, alongside many other well known underground writers.

This was also a thrift store find. I got it for a dime. I just finished it again this past week. It’s better now than when I read it 10 years ago. Maya Angelou used the English language in richer and deeper ways than most any other American writer I’ve seen. Her Collected Works hard cover poetry collection sits near my desk with my most sacred texts. Probably should yours, too.

Every time I see this sign posted at a thrift store I laugh out loud. I always imagine someone getting home with their book and getting a third of the way through it, before they say, “this fucking sucks, I’m going to return it for a better one.” Or maybe if it’s a book written by me, or Denis Johnson, they get two pages in and they clutch their rosaries and say, “oh sweet dear Jesus forgive me, but I believe I might go to hell if I read another page of this blasphemy! I’m gonna march down there and ask to speak to the manager.”

Both scenarios are equally humorous to me. Unless my book is the one they think sucks.

This is my best sunset photo from last week. This sunset was the non-cliche version of the word awesome. I took three photos, then put my phone away and sat for 15 minutes, before giving the show a standing ovation of one, as the last light gave way to the summer deep blue of dusk. I felt lucky to be there.

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Wahoo! I think I might have given a small chuckle, and then a bit of beauty with that last photo, and that is more than I’d hoped. Hell yeah.

This is me swinging back, because the past few days have been down right soul crushing, and having spent my entire existence fighting one thing or another, I know that when you get knocked down, if you mange to get back up you better start swinging, cuz another knock out punch is coming right down the middle if you don’t.

Which reminds me to give my every day service reminder that we should all drink our water and take our meds. Nothing happy happens when we don’t

Here’s to a good Sunday for us all, and a thank you from me, for you being a big part of my eternal hopes of tomorrow.

Love,

Dan

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Ps. the rough stuff has nothing to do with my new chapbook. The overwhelming support it and my upcoming trip to Portsmouth to act in a new movie, have been amazing. One of my best starts to raising gas money ever. I’m so lucky to have all of you.

I’m still hawking those books, and this upcoming trip to act in a movie is the perfect small escape from the ugly right now. I can’t wait to be away and around artists.

Details for the new chapbook are here.