After “One Jump Ahead” by Tim Rice as featured in “Disney’s Aladdin” 1993

“Gotta stay one jump ahead of the bread line
One swing ahead of the sword
I steal only what I can’t afford”

And what’s more expensive
Than the cost of living
In this country
In this world
This tan, brown, Black
Where breath costs a lung
And 2 running legs
We gasp bullets
And break to the sound of sirens
Wish they could see the prince
In all this “riff-raff”
“Scoundrel”
But lamps
Don’t light the way to compassion
And the weight of magic is
Blue enough
To suffocate a genie
Snatch the light out our sky
It’s “a whole new world”
Of the same old stories
“Gotta eat to live — gotta steal to eat
Otherwise we’d get along
Wrong!”
Street rats scamper
Scramble for escape
From the trap bigger than our frame
Belly aching for
“Just a little snack, guys”
See us ripped open
Taken six-fold
The block — an undug grave
For all to witness

The is no reprise
No reprieve
No bridge to bring back a life

“I steal only what I can’t afford”
And that’s…