Fractions In English Poem by Douglas Scotney

'A fifth, ' you ask,
'was there ever a quinth
or a quinter? '

Of the options for names for fractions,
somewhere along the way,
conflicting with a time,
'a second' wouldn't do.
'A moiety' they could have said instead.
Instead they selected 'a half'.

'A tierce',
perhaps too French,
was obsolesced
by 'a third'.

Comfortably ensconced
is 'a quarter',
despite 'a fourth'
being both a letter
and a syllable shorter.