First Lines Second Thoughts - The Making of Americans

Once
an angry man
dragged his father
along the ground
through his own orchard

“Stop!”
cried the groaning old man at last,

“Stop!
I did not drag my father beyond this tree.”   

- Gertrude Stein

First Lines Second Thoughts is a look at the first lines of well known literary works.
On second thought, do these opening words stand alone as poetry?