R. Yael Weissburg

That day outside the courtroom when you fell into my arms,
after he told you you’d been wasting your time,
that they would send you to a country you’ve never known,

I didn’t realize how quickly I’d come to love you,
in our broken sentences, our tightly held hands,
our reassuring touch when we ran out of words.

I wanted to tell you it would be ok;
I could keep you safe;
I would love your babies and raise them as my own.

My chin on your head;
Your head on my chest.
Our sobs finding each other,
Our breaths syncing to the other’s tempo.

For a moment, the whole world stopped.

February 9, 2026

R. Yael Weissburg is an accompaniment volunteer in the San Francisco Bay Area, accompanying undocumented immigrants to their asylum hearings and ICE check-ins. A long-time lover of poetry, she was moved to begin documenting her experiences in the immigration enforcement system as a way to metabolize the grief and rage she experiences, and as a witness of its cruelty. These poems mark her first published work.

This poem appears in Uprooted: Poems of Resistance, Witness, and Survival (The Chaos Section Poetry Project, Fall 2026). We’re sharing each poem from the collection individually over the coming weeks. You can read the full book or download the free PDF here.