But then, why not just iterate through the array directly?

use warnings;
use strict;

my @haiku =
(
    [
        'annoying sensei',
        'oh, young grasshopper',
        'dis-honourable',
        'you aburi brain'
    ],
    [
        'learn to run before you walk',
        'he thinks he knows everything',
        'insubordinate pupil',
        ],
        [
        'hey, wait a minute',
        'he must be senile',
        'he will face my wrath',
        'his brain is not well'
    ],
);

for my $line (@haiku)
{
    print $$line[rand @$line], "\n";
}
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