Spooks's "Help" is about being mentally stuck and unable to find a way out. The speaker describes their thoughts as a mire, a kind of swamp that slows everything down. They face a lock they can't work out, and they can't break it or even jolt themselves free. All their mind produces are "small ink blots," as if they want to write or create something but only get smudges.
The second stanza pushes the feeling further. The speaker has no colors for a canvas, so creativity seems out of reach, and no rope to grab as a black, murky mass swallows their head. The imagery suggests sinking with nothing to hold on to.
The mood is tense, claustrophobic and increasingly panicked. The short lines and the line about the head cracking build pressure, and the poem ends on a broken, fading plea: "Help....Me...". The ellipses make it feel like the speaker is running out of strength to ask.