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Sen. Barbara Boxer just announced her retirement by reading an eight-line poem

Andrew Prokop is a senior politics correspondent at Vox, covering the White House, elections, and political scandals and investigations. He’s worked at Vox since the site’s launch in 2014, and before that, he worked as a research assistant at the New Yorker’s Washington, DC, bureau.

On Thursday, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) announced that she wouldn't run for another term in 2016. The announcement was expected, and sets up what is sure to be an intense competition for California's first open Senate seat since 1992.

However, what wasn't expected was that Boxer would make her announcement by reading a rhyme that she, apparently, wrote herself. Skip forward to 2:24 to watch, or read the full text of Barbara Boxer's Retirement Rhyme below:

"The Senate is the place where I've always made my case /

For families, for the planet, and the human race.

More than 20 years in a job I love /

Thanks to California and the Lord above.

So although I won't be working for my Senate space,

and I won't be running in that next tough race,

as long as there are issues and challenges and strife

I will never retire, 'cause that's the meaning of my life."

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