Basically there are lists of these suspects
stashed here and there on the internet
as wordy folk compile them
like precautionary intersections
where separate elements meet
and turn combustible.
They exist either separate or together
or tentatively with a bridge between them,
certain adjective compounds like never-ending cycle
or they can be permanently hyphenated
like merry-go-round or empty-handed.
Like changelings some are transforming as we speak
from open to bridged to closed.
We don’t know why this happens or when,
although you can check with the analysts of science
or psychology or etymology.
I culled my own personal roll call of reference
from a list of 500 chemical alchemies,
words that seem to apply to the particular
transmutations we face today:
airplane and airport,
anything, anytime, anywhere and anyway,
bow tie and bodyguard,
backfire, backlash, brainstorm,
cabdriver, cartwheel, catfish,
caveman and cowboy, daydream dead-end,
dog house, dragonfly, dress shoes,
earlobe, earring and everything,
firecracker, firefly, fireworks,
forever free-for-all,
gentleman, goodnight,
haystack horseplay, hot dog,
laptop, lifeguard, lifetime and lighthouse,
living room and loudspeaker,
mailman, maybe, midnight,
overestimate, overlook,
ponytail, postcard, railroad, raincoat,
rock band, seashell, shoelace, shipwreck, showoff,
someday, somehow, somewhere,
sunglasses, starlight, superstar, stingray,
storyteller, suitcase, superman, sweetheart,
takedown, teammate, tennis shoes, throwback,
tug boat, together (that one worth looking up),
tree house and turnaround,
underdog, underestimate,
uplift, upset,
wallflower, work boots,
without.