Dandelions

The body is always looking to exert itself and escape the overcoding of the organism. And it does this in a number of ways that range from the spasm of orgasm, to the sudden yawn or burst of laughter. D. H. Lawrence understood this as a painter, which is why so many of his figures seem to have given themselves over to 'unselfconscious physicality and abandon', as Keith Sagar puts it.

Thus, when in a watercolour entitled Dandelions Lawrence depicts a man urinating on some flowers, he is not simply trying to shock those for whom biological functions are embarrassing or degrading, but also attempting to show how such a simple act might be conceived as expressive of the intensive forces of bodily sensation.

And so perhaps there was something not only touching about the drunk young woman pissing outside the tube station last night, but also liberating.