Patti Witten

Patti Witten is a former staff writer at Cornell University, also known as an award-winning singer and songwriter, graphic artist, and book illustrator. She has a B.A. in American History from Ithaca College, a cat named Mena, and an Airbnb in the country near Ithaca, New York.

Lowlands

Cynthia had withdrawn, wrapped in a shroud of bedsheets, exhausted by weeping. In the darkened room, sounds were somehow louder — the rain, a car swishing by on the street, the faint barking of a neighbor’s dog. Water dripping from the eaves and mumbling in the downspout beside the open window. Six days since Maylin drowned. Tomorrow they would bury her.

Issue 68, December 2022

Patti Witten

Patti Witten is a former staff writer at Cornell University, also known as an award-winning singer and songwriter, graphic artist, and book illustrator. She has a B.A. in American History from Ithaca College, a cat named Mena, and an Airbnb in the country near Ithaca, New York.

Lowlands

Cynthia had withdrawn, wrapped in a shroud of bedsheets, exhausted by weeping. In the darkened room, sounds were somehow louder — the rain, a car swishing by on the street, the faint barking of a neighbor’s dog. Water dripping from the eaves and mumbling in the downspout beside the open window. Six days since Maylin drowned. Tomorrow they would bury her.

Issue 68, December 2022

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