Lost Sonnets for My Unvaccinated Lover

Two dozen pages into this remarkable collection, the author quotes John Cage: Get yourself out of whatever cage you find yourself in. That's what Milkereit does here, freeing himself from formal constraint to find in each poem "a little song." These poems are not polemical-no pandemic soapbox here-instead, images that will engage readers in the experience of longing and loss.

-David Meischen, author of Anyone's Son, John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry, Texas Institute of Letters

Through the dangers and uncertainties of a global pandemic, Milkereit leads us on a quest for romantic love. Moving through a surreal world filled with art museums, parks, urban environments, and road trips between cities, Milkereit's newest collection of poetry delivers modern romanticism at its best. His work brings laughter and delight, even as it explores feelings of solitude, alienation, and yearning. His poems glisten with the tears that accompany COVID. Yet Milkereit is a deft magician who transforms tragedy into both tenderness and comedy. This poet pulls no punches. His sonnets cast a magic spell.

-Gabrielle Langley, author of Azaleas on Fire and Fairy Tale

Milkereit's poetry is about love in the time of corona: his words tenderly, beautifully, examine the fears we live with and the ideas that divide us. These stunning interconnected works honor the mysteries that ultimately can't be contained-illness, life and death, beliefs, our unique personalities, science, love, and even language itself.

-Lorette C. Luzajic, editor, The Ekphrastic Review, author, The Rope Artist, Winter in June