Frayed Edges

Frayed Edges

Her lean brown frame, suggested she wasn’t quite of age.
Her conversation conveyed she was a novice.
Her attitude alerted others that she wanted to be grown.

But her frayed edges spoke of the untold,
You wouldn’t understand Miss Jackson, she said.
My world is different from yours.

I looked into her still young tender eyes,
You would be surprised what I have seen and heard.
Young girls stretched, tugged, and gnawed on like pieces of meat.
Babies left in the middle of the night before they can even speak.
I’ve seen and heard it all, but I have never seen someone so young, with such frayed edges.

Well, what do you want to do, call the police,
Send me to the principal’s office,
Tell my mama.

There isn’t a system that can fix this.
The sickness of the world is created by the world.
The exploitation of children is the new slavery.
We have exchanged cotton cash crops for sexual solicitation of the innocent.

We adorn our baby girls in couture gowns and lipstick, forgetting that they are not plastic dolls but a human child on the inside.

Stripper poles adorn our basements and living rooms like family portraits and bezique figurines.

The edges and the lines are frayed, fragile and frightening is the society that sales its children to the highest bidder.

Shannise Jackson-Ndiaye

Guardian Angel

Mary had dropped her two-year-old daughter off to daycare. She made sure she had on her yellow t-shirt because they were taking the children to the movies and then to the playground. Mary drove away, as she was driving she had a thought; "what if her daughter wandered away from the group". As she got out of the car to start her walk she began to pray. She asked God to send a guardian angel to protect and cover her daughter.

As the children all took of their shoes to go inside the indoor play area, Kathy the daycare teacher told her assistant to stand by the entrance so that none of the children come out of the play area. As Kathy left to go and secure snacks, the assistant noticed that two of the


Other children were arguing over who’s turn it was to slide next. She turned for a few seconds to break up the fight and as she turned around, Mary's daughter Alice had wandered off. Frantically she looked around the perimeter of the play area and she didn’t see little Alice. She began to panic and didn’t know if she should leave the other children to search for Alice. Kathy finally returned and as she looked at her assistant she knew something was wrong. “Where is Alice she said”, before she could think she called on the name of Jesus and ran outside the play area and started to search for Alice. Tears welled up in her eyes and then she looked up and saw Alice standing with a woman. She ran to her and picked her up in her arms. The woman said, “I knew she must be from the play area because she has on only socks”. “My name is Beatrice and I am a minister”.

God has a way of strategically placing his people to serve his ultimate purpose. We have a greater comfort in knowing that he acts on our behalf and protect us even when we are not aware. The prayers of believers are more dependable and powerful then any man made weapon.
Alice’s mother and the day care provider were both believers; and the Holy Spirit had put them on alert but even when our intuition fails us his promise to love and protect us never fails.

Exodus 23: 20
Behold, I send an angel before you to keep and guard you on the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.