Why do you want to make something so simple so complicated and expensive? Use an iterator!

sub make_list_iterator {
   my @list = @_;
   return sub {
      return () if !@list;
      return shift(@list);
   };
}

my $iter = make_list_iter("some", "el", "ems");
while ( my ($item) = $iter->() ) {
   ...
}
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As a bonus, one doesn't need to know the length of the list in advance with an iterator!