Calling Perl script from PHP

Ok, I have a Perl script that does some specific text manipulation. I'd like to have my main page written in PHP, which takes some text input from a user. The input is then passed to the Perl script, processed, and the result is passed back to the PHP script. Is this possible? I know how to pass variables from one PHP page to a CGI page written in Perl, but I don't want to write a whole CGI Perl page. I only need this function that is already written in Perl. Is there some include or require type command that can do this? Thanks.

Darryl