Two short stanzas tell a small, strange story. A man with feathers sets out to find a kite, but he runs short of time and ends up "taken up by joy" instead. The detour is the point: what he meant to do gives way to something better he never planned for. The title, "Shortcut," fits that idea, since joy arrives by a route he didn't choose.
The second stanza turns slightly. The speaker admits that "high words" would have suited the moment, as if solemn or lofty language might have captured it. But everyone around is dancing and tumbling, and they seem "vexed about joy," a puzzling phrase that could mean joy bothers them, or that they're wrestling with it. The speaker seems amused rather than certain.
The mood is playful, light, and a little dreamlike. Feathers, kites, and tumbling bodies all suggest flight and lost balance, while the odd logic keeps the poem open to more than one reading.