Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Dorianne Laux’s “What Could Happen” is a meditative exploration of small-town life, its languid rhythms, and the possibilities—real or imagined—that exist just beyond the monotony. Through vivid imagery and a sense of restrained yearning, the poem examines the interplay between place, time, and identity, capturing the simultaneous weight and freedom of ordinary existence.

The setting of the poem is a small, fading town, where the landscape seems to exert its own influence, “nudg[ing] houses and shops / toward the valley, kick[ing] the shallow river / into place.” The town is both a backdrop and a character, its staleness reflected in the people and their interactions—or lack thereof. A barking dog, unacknowledged and ignored, becomes a metaphor for the kind of passive acceptance that permeates this place. The men, clustered “in loose knots / outside Ace Hardware,” seem tethered to a routine as dull and repetitive as the tools they contemplate. Even the children in the park are subdued, “the sandbox full / of hardscrabble, the monkey bars / too hot to touch.” Laux captures the heat and inertia of the scene with a careful specificity that suggests both resignation and potential energy.

Amid this stasis, the speaker introduces a woman—a central figure whose presence breaks through the monotony. The woman is described as “on the edge of forty,” a description loaded with nuance. The “edge” implies transition, a tipping point where possibility and limitation collide. Her car, an extension of her life and identity, is a patchwork of imperfection: “the back end / all jingle and rivet, one headlight / taped in place, the hood held down with greasy rope.” This description underscores her resilience and resourcefulness, but it also suggests a sense of neglect or decay, mirroring the town’s decline.

The woman’s actions are marked by small rebellions against the stifling ordinariness of her surroundings. She drives aimlessly, eats persimmons—an evocative choice of fruit, rich and sensual, contrasting with the starkness of her environment—and contemplates the mundane details around her. The wooden Indian and the shop window filled with “beaten leather, bright woven goods” evoke a town clinging to fragments of identity and history, even as it fades into irrelevance.

The turning point of the poem comes when the woman pauses to savor the physical sensation of a cold soda bottle pressed against her skin. This moment is both intimate and transformative, a visceral act of self-awareness and reclamation. The gesture—“roll[ing] it under her palm down the length of her neck / then slip[ping] it beneath the V of her blouse”—is sensual, almost defiant. It suggests an awakening, a fleeting recognition of her own desires and agency within the confines of her life.

The final stanza offers two paths: one of continued repetition and one of escape. She could continue driving “up and down the same street,” trapped in a cyclical routine symbolized by the “same hairpin turn” that echoes the monotony of her existence. Or she could break free, pushing past the boundaries of the town, “toward the hills, / beyond that shadowy nest of red madrones.” The madrones, with their distinctive red bark and resilience, stand as symbols of something wilder, untamed—a possibility of renewal or transformation waiting just out of reach.

Laux’s use of sensory details and physicality grounds the poem in the tangible, creating a vivid and immersive world. The sound of the car engine—“like a swarm of bottle flies”—and the tactile chill of the soda bottle convey the immediacy of the moment, while the radio’s “bass notes throbbing like a vein” underscore the woman’s suppressed vitality. These details reflect her inner life, hinting at a deep longing for something more.

Ultimately, “What Could Happen” is a study in contrasts: stasis versus motion, resignation versus possibility, the mundane versus the sublime. The poem captures the tension between the comfort of the familiar and the allure of the unknown, leaving the reader poised at the edge of the woman’s decision. Through its rich imagery and quiet emotional resonance, the poem invites us to consider our own moments of stillness and longing, the choices we make, and the roads we dare—or dare not—take.

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