2 Minute Worlds

What cities do you want to visit?

A Small, Incomplete Wish List

(Left on God’s Desk, No Urgency)

God,

if one day You have a little extra time

between keeping atoms from quitting

and reminding the sun to show up,

I have a few places I’d like to see.

Not as a conqueror.

Not as a tourist with a loud backpack.

Just as a person who promises to walk slowly.

Take me to New York.

I won’t ask for success.

Just let me sit on a bench and feel invisible

while the city mistakes me for someone else.

In Chicago,

let the wind argue with me

until I lose and stop explaining myself.

In Miami,

teach me how water forgives land

every single day

and still comes back.

In London,

let me get lost

and find a book that smells like rain

and decisions already made.

In Manchester,

let football be a religion

that doesn’t ask me to believe—

only to feel.

In Berlin,

let the walls talk softly

about how breaking is sometimes

another form of freedom.

In Moscow,

teach me how silence can survive winter.

Take me to Guangzhou and Beijing,

where the future eats noodles at midnight

and the past pretends not to stare.

Let Egypt humble me.

I promise I won’t ask the pyramids

for motivational advice.

In Jerusalem,

help me walk without choosing sides,

only directions.

If Damascus ever breathes freely again,

let me sit in its old courtyards

and listen to history apologize.

In Medina,

slow my heart.

In Mecca,

erase my wish list entirely.

In Riyadh,

let me see a country

trying on a new mirror.

In Dubai,

remind me that height

is not the same as meaning.

In Abu Dhabi,

teach me how beauty can pray

without saying a word.

In Baku,

let fire behave itself.

If Kabul allows it,

let me drink tea with someone

who has every reason to hate the future

but doesn’t.

In Kathmandu,

make my breath finally catch up with me.

In Kandy,

let silence feel like an answer.

In Dhaka,

show me how life survives crowds

and still finds room for kindness.

In Seoul,

teach me how speed

and discipline

can still love tradition.

In Christchurch,

show me how broken things

choose to stand again.

In Sydney,

let the ocean interrupt my thoughts.

In Perth,

teach me that loneliness

can be generous.

In Malaysia,

let differences sit at the same table

without explaining themselves.

In Taiwan,

let nights taste sweet

and people mean it.

In Tokyo,

teach me respect

without fear.

God,

I don’t need all of this.

I know budgets, borders, and bodies.

Even two or three cities

would be enough.

But if You’re feeling generous one day,

and the universe is running smoothly,

take me around the world

and bring me back

less certain

and more human.