Dry Foot, Wet Eye Poem by Liilia Talts Morrison

Another raft washed to the shore
another story told
another incident at sea
of souls and bodies bold

Of course, we all had heard those tales
of courage and of pain
of those who won and those who lost
and still would try again

Then one day someone shared with me
an incident of yore
still burning in her caring heart
of a rafter washed ashore

Nobody knew who he had been
no papers and no clothes
or whether he had built a raft
or why this voyage chose

He lay there on the salty shore
with dry feet parched and tanned
so he was legal and could stay
in this his promised land

Yet there's a rule above the sea
beyond the clouds and sky
that those who enter that fair realm
had suffered and oft cried

It will not matter if our feet
were swollen, wet or dry
as long as we had cared and sought
to love with tearful eyes

Another raft washed to the shore
another story told
another incident at sea
of souls and bodies bold.