Self-diagnosis

None of my ex’s had a dog. I can’t watch
television alone. I am sloppy
with the weekend, never quite respecting
its luster. I prefer to get drunk
on a Tuesday. I am one tooth away
from a locked jaw at all times, one ring
away from a married woman, one accent
away from a movie career. I quit
my job this year and now instead of trembling
at the sight of my boss, I crumble
before myself. If I dare put on a Sunday
dress, my skin chews on the bones
I never picked. I am, I am, I am.

—"“Self-diagnosis” by Maria Giesbrecht. Excerpted from A Little Feral (Write Bloody Publishing, 2026). Copyright Maria Giesbrecht. Reprinted with permission.

About A Little Feral:

In A Little Feral, Maria Giesbrecht delivers a debut collection that navigates faith, family, and personal resurrection through a voice at once wild, intimate, and quietly rebellious. Written in the aftermath of leaving a conservative Mennonite upbringing, these poems chart a parallel journey of breaking away — from father, from God, from the confines of obedience. Giesbrecht's language is lyrical and unflinching, a cadence that moves between tenderness and defiance, weaving ancestral memory with moments of stark revelation.

A Little Feral asks readers to reimagine where holiness might be found — in the fractures of family, in the undoing of inherited faith, and even in the loneliness of a world shaped by patriarchy and exile.

About the author:

Maria Giesbrecht is a Canadian poet whose work explores her Mexican and Mennonite roots. Her writing has appeared in The Literary Review of Canada, Grain, Contemporary Verse 2, San Pedro River Review, and elsewhere. She is the winner of the 2025 Jack McCarthy Book Prize, a Best of Net nominee, and the founder of Gather, an international writing community that connects poets worldwide. Born in Durango, Mexico, she now lives in Toronto, Canada with her fiancée.