One way to "reset" the flip-flop is to recompile its statement.

use strict;
my @a = qw(hubba bubba abba zappa);
print blah("bubba", @a), "\n";
print blah("bubba", @a), "\n";

sub blah {
    my($look_for, @array)=@_;
    
    my @elements_we_want;
    my $string = 
        '(undef, @elements_we_want) = grep { $_ eq $look_for .. 1 } @a
+rray;';
    eval $string;
    
    return @elements_we_want;
}
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Edit: Sorry, I did not notice the similiar idea by JavaFan.