When I was a child, playing in the gully, I was told by a teacher to put my top back on.

I looked at the boys, I looked at myself (at this age there was no visible difference between our chests). “Why?” I asked. “Because you are a girl”.

I pondered this, but it didn’t stop me jumping into lakes naked on school trips.

My mother received complaints she never bothered to pass on to me.

 

Well yes, stood on the top of a cliff, clad in nothing but sky, there are few greater feelings.

Or lying naked in moss and pine needles and knowing that I am of the earth beneath me, 

I have never felt more beautiful.

 

And on those dark wine nights where the party moves slightly wilder and I am in the company of all my nude friends, I look around and see how everyone’s body is as unique as their face and we are all animals of the earth playing and wonderful and I want to paint every single one of us. 

 

You are all perfect to me.

 

O