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Check Out This Poetry Eric Swalwell Penned in College

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  February 17, 2026 8:30 AM

This writer studied English during both her undergraduate and graduate studies. Her least favorite part of that was poetry. And now she's understanding why. It turns out Rep. Eric Swalwell, who is also running for governor of California, once penned some secret, erotic poetry.

Now we're learning what was in that poetry, and it's most definitely not on the level of Shakespeare or E.E. Cummings. In fact, it's so cringeworthy and bad that it's almost laughable.

Here's more:

California gubernatorial hopeful Eric Swalwell once penned a graphic, sex-charged college poem boasting of lovers “kissing till veins imploded and exploded” — with “blood rolled down our chins,” according to a report.

The Democrat, now running for governor, wrote the eyebrow-raising piece when he was a 19-year-old student enrolled at Campbell University, where he contributed to the literary magazine “The Lyricist” and also penned a column for the student newspaper, according to Daily Mail.

The poem, titled “Hungover From Burgundy,” describes two partners meeting atop a hotel before having “formless and magnificent” sex in a “flurry of limbs and nails,” with the narrator appearing to relish being bitten.

Yikes.

X users took the opportunity to create some poetry of their own.

Well done.

That's pretty good, too.

Too late.

These are really, really funny.

Very funny.

Well played.

Here's the entire poem, in case you were wondering:

Yes, it is.

His entire gubernatorial campaign will consist of his opponents quoting lines from this poem at him, or making up versions of their own. Which is fine; Swalwell deserves to be mocked. He's vowed to weaponize the California government against ICE agents if he's elected, he's lied about ICE using a five-year-old boy as "bait" to arrest his father (the reality is ICE cared for the boy after his father fled and his mother refused to take custody), and used  Ben Sasse's announcement that he's got terminal pancreatic cancer to score political points.