2 Quarter Limit

I once took a coin, a quarter that is

And added to it another half a coin

This totaled thirty-seven cents

And a half (when they were joined)

But I wasn’t content

With such and odd amount

So I added another half of a half

And started to count

“One plus a half plus a fourth

is 43 and three-fourths cents.”

So now with 1 and ¾ quarters

I proceeded to commence

So I added a half of a half of a half

(Another eighth of a coin)

Plus half of that is a sixteenth

And all these halves I did join.

I kept adding more and more halves

Of the previous amount

Thinking I was amassing

And enormous bank account

But as I kept counting

My head grew quite numb

And I began to think

My method was dumb.

For although my money kept growing

It grew more and more slowly

The amount I was adding

Was more and more lowly

My sum grew closer and closer

To a mere fifty cents

That only two quarters!!

It didn’t make any sense.

So, to that first coin, there’s no limit

To the halves you can add, it is true.

But there is a limit to the total of coins,

And, precisely, that limit is two!

So many, many halves makes two quarters

But two quarters is exactly a half

This strange and puzzling truth

Can only make you scratch your head and laugh.