People Are Sad

“…but what can we do? Nothing. Just cry.”
-Bilal Gaf, a Kurdish refugee speaking to the BBC on the
drowning of Artin Iran-Najad, June 2021

today I see Jesus in my toast                      yet another sighting / his face

                                a little burnt / his mouth                           frowning

   this is the headline on the BBC / Body of Baby Who Died in Channel       Found

     in Norway / on my commute I think about the crossing

                  lurch of the dinghy                   eight-foot waves / how people insisted

                                        God walked on water

       when I was a kid I watched spindly insects skitter across ponds / they did

whatever they pleased / they irritated me

   with brainless confidence                  their monopoly

of miracles / I’d throw stones

                                                       just to see them sink

M. Cynthia Cheung is physician whose writing has appeared or is forthcoming in RHINO, Sugar House Review, Zócalo Public Square, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and others.