What does this poem mean

A
The dead were still singing Turn the lights down low
Beneath Yellow Bridge where years before, clowning 
And ass out, Stick jumped with nothing but the State 
Championship trophy in his righteous clutch. The water 
Was supposed to be deepest there, and for three seasons 
Straight MVPs: Charlie "Fly" Kennison, Long Timmy Long, 
And Rocket Jefferson, those are the names I knew, jumped 
Free. But Stick's ankle broke. I fished him out, crumpled   
And bawling like the day he was born, like an object of 
Baptism, and a life of bad luck followed in the shape of 
Floods and fractured lightning, and then, numb, tooth- 
Less, and changed, the dead refused burial, striking out, 2 
By 2, 4 by 4, from the morgue house to raise trouble at 
The bridge. I started hearing birds everywhere after that.