Clifton Market

[Preface:  Cincinnati’s Clifton neighborhood suffered a severe loss when its grocery, Keller’s IGA, closed in 2011 after seventy-two years in business.  When efforts to open a new IGA store failed, a group of local volunteers organized to open the store as a community-owned cooperative.  They recruited over 1200 shareholders, numerous donors, and $3 million dollars in loans.  After major renovation, Clifton Market opened on Jan. 22, 2017, much to the delight of the neighborhood.]

Our neighborhood’s filled with excitement

Clifton Market has opened this week

I’ll tell you exactly what it is like

In the hope that you’ll soon take a peek

Clifton Market is like the Green Bay Packers

The people themselves are the owners 

There are over twelve hundred shareholders

Plus some very benevolent donors

The Market itself is a football game

The fans are all rooting for their team

You can buy a bratwurst and a Hudepohl

For dessert, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream

Some say our Market’s an amusement park

Each department supplies its own thrills

There’s a Tunnel of Love for the veggies

And the wine cellar gives us the chills

Clifton Market is also a Broadway show

Jazzy and tuneful and rhythmic

With a colorful cast of characters

And a story line clearly terrific

Going to the Market’s a trip to the zoo

You stroll here and there in a loop

There are zillions of flora and fauna to see

Plus a cauldron of fresh lentil soup

Clifton Market, I’d say, is an orchestra

Different players all playing their parts

As you’d guess, there’s a gifted conductor

Who’s directing with keen grocery smarts

And finally it’s like the Fourth of July

With skyrockets lighting the sky

There are flashes of yellow and orange and green

And the reds of a ripe cherry pie

All in all, Clifton Market has brightened our life

I stop in to buy stuff every day 

It’s so new there’s a sense of adventure

And it helps keep the willies at bay