The colonel swung a machine pistol
At everyone and no one.
The racket was thunderous
The dust-cloud blinding.
The General raised his hand
And made the pain in the ears and eyes
Diminish and then to disappear entirely.
The other Iron Birds were gone
The blades of the General's bird winding down.
The two soldiers stood at ease
In the sultry mid-morning heat
To wait until it was quiet.
And when it was quiet they waited.
At last two people separated
From the masses which had moved
To the shade of a wooded hillside
And slowly approached the pair.
They were Richard of Amwell
And his second, Anne of Amwell.
The four shook hands formally.
While the aides made brief
Guarded but innocuous remarks
The Chairman of the First Country Congress
Escorted the General to occupy a large
Flat boulder in view of all the Outsiders.
It was some charged minutes
Before either man spoke.
Acutely aware of the enormity of the outcome of this meeting, each was uncertain how to embark. The Chairman recognized the general from his picture in newspapers and on the box, and as an elder version of the man who helped free Europe in World War II. He mentioned it casually.