lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm | 4 +++-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm
index 40994fd44a085f286f13eb8126c69d98d1717747..2d312f0ac15084fe6b295351748d481a013d8ac9 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/DS.pm
@@ -271,6 +271,7 @@ sub EventLoop {
     $Epoll //= _InitPoller();
     local $in_loop = 1;
     my @events;
+    my $obj; # guard stack-not-refcounted w/ Carp + @DB::args
     do {
         my $timeout = RunTimers();
 
@@ -281,7 +282,8 @@             # it's possible epoll_wait returned many events, including some at the end
             # that ones in the front triggered unregister-interest actions.  if we
             # can't find the %sock entry, it's because we're no longer interested
             # in that event.
-            $DescriptorMap{$fd}->event_step;
+            $obj = $DescriptorMap{$fd};
+            $obj->event_step;
         }
     } while (PostEventLoop());
     _run_later();