ragged edge

In “Two Things,” she finds the ragged edge of her honeyed voice to put across the exasperation involved in a love-hate relationship; in “We Broke Up,” she realizes that closure is available only to those who are ready for it: “I could take a deep dive in the details / I could hide, I could cry till I throw up / Take a stroll, camera roll, old emails / But it’s as simple as, ‘We broke up.’”

The last few years I've been off balance, right on the ragged edge of my technique where that if I have to push a little bit more, I lose it.

Frederickson, 56, was perched on that ragged edge of American life, where a stroke of bad luck — a lost job, a health crisis — can mean the difference between paying the bills and not, between making rent and not, between getting by and not.

But this sleek atmosphere conceals a ragged edge.

I remember thinking, I’m like on the ragged edge of sanity.”