lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm | 2 +-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm
index c03bd5dd097348648d5da145a8cd1e591e169abe..779215c93e518bd0f29467285d505cc4d7d8596b 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm
@@ -333,8 +333,8 @@                     $code->($state);
                 } else {
                     my $fd = $ev->[0];
                     warn "epoll() returned fd $fd w/ state $state for which we have no mapping.  removing.\n";
-                    POSIX::close($fd);
                     epoll_ctl($Epoll, EPOLL_CTL_DEL, $fd, 0);
+                    POSIX::close($fd);
                 }
                 next;
             }