Fear and Reality

Tell me, friends,
The difference is...

I am a frayed thread
Between afraid and tread
A road stone
Ready to tear the next tire
For want of drive;

Where to go is the quest
And why is the fly
To spoon up and ignore
As I eat polite soup;

When, then, does a hollow ring
Indicate fear or fear itself;
And what, then, action must follow;

Whose analysis wins
The fight before death
To conquer life and proclaim
All is thus well--
Each combatant and non-combatant 
Guilty in the eyes 
Of one law or yet another;