our $Global; sub make_closure { my %lexical; $Global = \%lexical; return sub { my $key = shift; @_ ? $lexical{$key} = shift : $lexical{$key}; }; }; { # here we make a closure my $c = make_closure(); # which we can use to set and get keys $c->(foo => 42); print "foo is ", $c->('foo'), "\n"; # at the end of the scope the closure goes away }; # but the referant is still around print "Global foo is ", $Global->{foo}, "\n";