As a noun it slips easily into one’s knowledge base
though it’s often quite hard to pin down. Perhaps
like pornography, one knows it, when one sees it.

Its dark side comes from some sleazy associations
when used as slang for heroin or male genitalia and
by certain underground elements as a swear word.

Its partners in rhyme generally have negative connotations
like drunk and flunk and punk and sunk and clunk and gunk
those hard old grunts, also notable in the utterance, “unc”

as in uncle when one says, “I GIVE UP”
although with some effort it manages to elevate a few
nouns like monk and chipmunk and tree trunk.

But it’s as an adjective where it really shines.
Think of all the nouns it gives character to:
Junk food Junk drawer Junk bonds

Junk yard Junk shop Junk mail Junk art
Junk dealer Junk DNA Junk brands Junk
sentences, one could go on indefinitely.

Even as a verb, implying the throwing of something
away, it manages to hold its own.
For a word that means useless or of so little value

its remarkable quality of versatility and reversibility
is exampled in the old adage “One man’s junk is another
man’s treasure” providing it a modicum of everlasting fame.