migraine flickerings
by John Hawkhead
sighting an electron stream
leave free radicals
A free radical is an atom, ion or molecule with at least one unpaired valence electron and which are usually highly chemically reactive with short lifetimes.
They are formed either from other radicals or by breaking a covalent bond in a spin-paired molecule, leaving each of the fragments with one of the electrons in the original bond.
The author of this haiku suffers from migraines where vision is impaired in such a way that there appears to be a stream of electrical waves and particles across the eye.
Further reading:
‘Radical (Chemistry)’, Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_(chemistry)
‘Migraine’, Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migraine
Author bio:
John Hawkhead (@HawkheadJohn) has been writing haiku and illustrating for over 25 years. His work has been published all over the world and he has won a number of haiku competitions. John’s books of haiku and senryu, ‘Small Shadows’ and ‘Bone Moon’, are now available from Alba Publishing (http://www.albapublishing.com/). Read more of John’s sciku here!