Rudyard Kipling

THE ANSWER
.
A rose, in tatters on garden path,
Cried out to God and murmured 'gainst His Wrath
Because a sudden wind at twilight's hush
Had snapped her stem alone of all the bush,
And, God who hears both sun-dried dust and sun
Had pity,whispering to that luckless one.
"Sister in that thou sayest We did not well-
What voices hear st thou when thy petals fell?"
And the rose answered, "In that evil hour
A voice said,'Father, where for falls the flower?'
For lo, the very gossamers are still'
And a voice answered, Son by Allah's will!"
.
Then softly as a rain-mist on the sward,
Came the Rose and the Answer of the Lord.
"Sister, before We smote the dark in twain,
Ere yet the stars saw one another plain
Time, Tide and Space, We bound unto the task
That thou shouldst fall, and such a one should ask"
Where at the withered flower, all content,
Died as they die whose days are innocent
While he questioned why the flower fell
Got hold of God and saved his soul from hell.