Hidden Lines

The lines seem to want to hide
Themselves away from being
Labeled as just poetry.

They’d rather be personas,
People in costume as verse,
Or fierce creatures parading

Their evolved adaptations,
Occasionally sparring
Or preying on each other.

Each time you look at a line
You imagine moving scenes
Of stern character actors,

But not with words, not as words,
But as birds handy with words . . .