Hello and congratulations! :) To be honest, I wasn’t afraid of anyone I wrote about reading the poems I’d written about them, because I specifically made sure that the subjects of my poems were vague enough to be hidden from discovery. In other words, I made sure the people I wrote about wouldn’t know I was writing about them. At least in almost all cases.
So instead I really just had a general fear about how people would react to my book and its subject matter, because I know that a lot of my poems center around controversial topics, topics that maybe people close to me would be surprised I’d tried to tackle.
But I basically just told myself that I had put a great deal of effort, writing, revising, hard work, and many, many hours into both my books, and that I was proud of myself for the end result I’d accomplished, no matter the reactions to my poems.
The thing is, the very fact that your first chapbook is about to come out is a huge success and something to celebrate! So be proud of that.
That being said, it’s not the writer’s job to be careful. It’s not necessarily their job to protect their subjects or play it safe. It’s the writer’s job to write truthfully and spill their guts, even if it may be painful for them and for their readers. I think it’s important not to tiptoe around certain issues. You obviously wrote with much honesty, which I think is key to being a good writer, so kudos for that.
Clearly you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, and hopefully that won’t happen, but if it does, I’m sure your skills of eloquence will come in handy when it comes time to explain the situation or patch it up.
So don’t worry. :) And again, congratulations! Enjoy this moment.