to live TMTOWTDT out, here are some other ways;
one cannot recommend the first one, but the second is a clean way:

1. a nice eval-trick, i think abigail-II used it in a sig

eval join ('*', @list);
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2. something more functional?
have a look at Language::Functional. the relevant bits are the functions foldl/foldr

$x = foldl { shift() + shift() } 0, [1..6]; # 21
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this is the POD example.

HTH a bit at least :-)