Opps sorry, my actual code looks closer to

sub makeinsert{ 
  die "no table" unless ($args{table}); 
  my $table  =$args{table}; 
  die "no table" unless ($args{dbh}); 
  my $dbh    =$args{dbh}; 
  die "no varlist" unless ($args{varlist}); 
  my @vl=@{$args{varlist}}; 
  my $repeat =$args{repeat}; 
  $repeat=1 unless ($repeat); 

          my @q=map{'?'} @vl; 
          my $plist=' ('.join (',',@q).') ';
          my @aplist; 
          for my $ii (1..$repeat) { push @aplist,$plist; } 
          my $plistn=join (",\n",@aplist); 
          my $sql='INSERT INTO '.$table.'
                      ('.join (',',@vl).' ) values '.$plistn;    
          my $handle=$dbh->prepare($sql);
          die "Couldn't prepare ".$table." insert; aborting"
                unless defined $handle ; 
          return $handle; 
} 

my $sth2_1000=makeinsert(dbh     =>$dbh2
                        ,table   =>'table_name'
                        ,repeat  =>1000
                        ,varlist =>[qw/col_1 col_2 col_3 col_4 col_5/]
                        );
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