Who’s angry at the writer?

design by Katerina Babanofsky

My family members
get incensed by my
poems, photos, and anecdotes,
used without permission.

What I saw was
extraordinary beauty,
extreme honesty,
divine insight.

The publication
does not bring fame
to me or them.

It is a gallery,
a record of a telling moment.

Just like “Spoon River Anthology”
was a gallery
for Edgar Lee Masters.

The Illinois characters
based on the tombstones
made those town’s people angry too.

Did the best-selling book
make them jealous?
Or were they upset
at the mention of their names?
Was Masters a grave digger?

Am I a property thief?