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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.
“While I screamed / She bent her lips to mine,” the passage reads, adding the pair kept kissing “till veins imploded and exploded … For bounded mouths cannot speak of parting.”
“And there beauty was, formless and magnificent — a flurry of limbs and nails. She chased and I ran, I chased and she ran,” Swalwell wrote in the poem.
“Atop my hotel she stopped, and I lept for cloth and tan, my anxious arm she bit — my scar is beautiful.”
Swalwell continued: “While I screamed, she bent her lips to mine. Kissing till veins imploded and exploded, till blood rolled down our chins, for bounded mouths cannot speak of parting.”
“In the morning, I awoke beside beauty’s shadow — her form sloppy and her legs pale. My scar lost, my lips cracked and dry. And we groaned simultaneously.”
A spokesman brushed off the decades-old writing as youthful embarrassment in a statement to the Daily Mail, joking: “If you think Eric’s poetry at 18 was bad, you should see his diary entries from when he was 12.”
As a college sophomore, Swalwell also penned commentary that critics say expressed sympathy for convicted “cop killers,” including Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier — two of the most controversial criminal cases of the past half-century, according to the Daily Mail.
Abu-Jamal was convicted in the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer, while Peltier was found guilty in the 1975 killing of two FBI agents. Both cases have long drawn support from activists who argue they were politically prosecuted — but remain lightning rods in law enforcement circles.
The writings are now resurfacing as Swalwell, a former prosecutor who once led a hate crimes unit, seeks the governor’s mansion — prompting opponents to question how his youthful rhetoric squares with his later role in the criminal justice system.
Swalwell’s college writings aren’t the only controversy shadowing his bid for higher office.
Between 2011 and 2015, Swalwell had contact with Christine Fang — also known as Fang Fang — a woman later identified by US intelligence officials as a suspected Chinese operative who cultivated relationships with local and national politicians.
Fang helped raise funds for Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign and assisted in placing an intern in his congressional office, according to reporting at the time.
In 2015, federal investigators gave Swalwell a defensive briefing about Fang’s suspected ties to China’s Ministry of State Security, after which he cut off contact with her.
Swalwell was not accused of wrongdoing, and a House Ethics Committee investigation concluded in 2023 without taking action, though he was later removed from the House Intelligence Committee by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who cited national security concerns.
The Post has sought comment from Swalwell.
English (US)