How does one add spacing in front of a line?

Imagine that the hyphen is a space.

Roses are red
-violets are blue

How do I make it so that I can use a space there and when I post the poem the line isn't shifted to the side?

Closest I've gotten to it is by putting in dots or _s and then coloring those the background color.

CodeSelect all

[color=#d4d4d4]____[/color]words words words

for example gives
"____words words words"

Thanks! I didn't know they offer the same color as the background.