#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my @cleanarray = <>;
foreach (@cleanarray)
{
    print "$1\n" if m/(\S+)/;
}
[download]

Update: Fixed the loop to only print if the match succeeds, per merlyn

Now that I think about it though, a mock awk really ought to look like this:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my @cleanarray = <>;
foreach (@cleanarray)
{
        # The regex always matches so there's no need
        # for a conditional.
    m/(\S*)/;
    print "$1\n";
}
[download]

That matches awk's behavior on blank lines better than my first stab.

-Matt